Two years ago, 48-year-old Mateen Ahmad and his family would cower in their bunker a few hundred metres from the barbed wire fence on the Line of Control in Uri every time shells or bullets were fired from Pakistan when tension would flare up between the Indian and Pakistani armies. But with the guns falling silent since the ceasefire in 2021, the bunker lay abandoned until Ahmad put it to good use — for growing mushrooms.
Ahmad’s is an overground bunker, a 10×10 sq ft stone and mud hut, protected on one side by a hillock. As he harvests his first mushroom crop, Ahmad, a landless labourer, is literally reaping the dividends of peace. He is not alone — at least a dozen villagers have set up mushroom units at Nambla and its adjoining villages. The dark and damp pigeon-hole bunkers nestled in pine and deodar thickets provide perfect growing conditions for the fungi.
The yield from the bunkers, which are under the constant vigil of Pakistani posts across the LoC divided by Hajipeer Nullah, has been encouraging enough for more villagers to grow mushrooms in disused sheds, underground bunkers, even spare rooms in their homes.
“Till 2021, all we thought of was our safety and security. Shells would land in our villages and bullets would hit our houses whenever tension escalated. Since peace returned on the LoC after the ceasefire, I have been thinking of ways to improve our lot. I started growing mushrooms and sold 50kg last week,” says Ahmad, proudly showing off more mushrooms that will soon be ready for sale.
Villagers here measure their crop in bags, with each bag selling for around ₹500-750.
“I have a small unit of 100 bags but after seeing the demand in the market, I’m planning to increase it to 200 bags with the guidance of the agriculture department. I can comfortably earn a decent livelihood from this unit,” Ahmad says, adding that he has been besieged by enquiries from villagers. “I have enough experience of turning abandoned huts into profitable ventures,” he smiles.
Peace yielding profit
Uri sector in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district has always been in the line of fire whenever tension escalates between India and Pakistan. Villages such as Balkote, Nambla, Silikote, Hatlanga and Churunda become targets for shelling from across LoC and villagers have sometimes been forced to migrate to safer places. In the past two decades, more than a dozen people have lost their lives to shelling and firing, and hundreds have been injured in Nambla alone.
But with peace, in some form, returning, villages close to Zero Line have started reaping rich dividends. The fields that villagers once abandoned are being revived. And now, there are mushrooms to be grown.
Abida Begum, a community mobiliser running a self-help group says she first cultivated mushrooms last autumn and harvested in 40 days to earn ₹40,000. “This time again, my mushroom crop is ready. We don’t have enough land so this will be a good source of income,” she adds.
Another landless young man, Mukthair Ahmad Najar, a BSc graduate, says he was unemployed and turned his room into a mushroom cultivation centre. “I earned ₹50,000 from one crop of 100 bags. Many locals are now interested and are using underground bunkers for mushroom cultivation.”
The produce is typically bought by local vendors.
Nambla, the mushroom village
Recognising the success of mushroom farmers, the government is developing Nambla as the region’s “mushroom village”. The agriculture extension officer in-charge of Nambla, Naeem Shafi, says mushroom cultivation is a boon particularly for the landless. “The department is training villagers in Uri on how they can grow two crops of mushrooms in a single season in these bunkers. The department proposes to use community bunkers for self-help groups growing mushrooms.”
Last autumn, he says, 20 mushroom units were set up in Uri, while this spring, four more have come up. “Technical aspects, such as cross-ventilation and installation of exhaust fans, are being looked into by our teams. This can prove to be a game-changer and provide people a sustainable source of income.”
The bunkers were built in the ’90s due to frequent cross-border shelling, however. The 2005 earthquake that hit north Kashmir left most of those bunkers damaged. Locals and the government again started building the bunkers after 2015 due to frequent cross-LoC firing in Uri. While the size of personal bunkers varies from 100 to 150 square feet, community bunkers are larger and spread over 1,000 to 1,500 square feet.
Feasible conditions, best for landless
Dr Bilal Ahmad, the scientist in-charge at the Mountain Agriculture Research and Extension Station, Sheri Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST), says Uri has sub-tropical temperatures feasible for mushroom cultivation in spring and winter. “We are trying to see if mushrooms can be cultivated throughout the year. It’s the best and preferred choice for the landless. All it requires is an enclosed space where temperature and humidity can be controlled and maintained.”
Mushrooms require temperatures ranging from 24 to 26 degrees C. “Each bag holds 2.5kg to 3kg of mushroom and people buy it for ₹250 a kg. A farmer or entrepreneur can earn ₹60,000 to ₹80,000 within two months without any hard labour,” he says.
Daljit Singh, the sub divisional officer, agriculture has unearthed a local proverb that translates as: “Finding a mushroom is testimony of good fortune”. He says: “We hope mushrooms cultivated along the LoC will bring fortune, peace and prosperity to the villagers who have always lived under the shadow of death and destruction. The process has begun. In Uri alone, there are more than 100 bunkers built by villagers and the government that can easily be used for mushroom cultivation after making minor changes without huge investment.”