University launches green project for women

ECO FRIENDLY: Training will be given in quail farming and floriculture, among others.

The Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University in Jammu and Kashmir has stepped in to help women in Kashmir.

The university's Centre for Biodiversity Studies has launched two projects for the uplift of rural women (particularly those who are either illiterate or have little educational qualifications) from the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in the state. This is the first time any wing of the university in Jammu and Kashmir has taken such an initiative.

School of Biosciences Dean AK Koul said under the bioresource-based training programme, 740 women in Rajouri would be trained in various areas like vermicomposting, mushroom cultivation, quail farming, floriculture and growing medicinal and aromatic plants.

The second project, called Ecorestoration, is covered under the Greening India Scheme of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for the restoration of degraded mountainous land.

Women and farmers will be involved in plantation and, along with a village forest committee, will grow trees that have a high growth rate and yield high returns. While the saplings will be provided by the university, the projects will be funded by the department of biotechnology of the Union government.

Principal investigator of these projects Ashfaq Ahmed Zarri said for the first time, this concept had been initiated in a militancy-affected district.

A large number of women in various blocks and tehsils of this district have shown interest in the project. Zarri said the projects aimed at adding to the family income of these women.

The programme is begin in batches in a week. "After getting training, the women's groups will be assisted in procuring funding from rural banks in the area," he said.