Srinagar: A willingness to learn and a passion for growing trees has made Manzoor Ahmad successfully grow oranges in his few feet of land in downtown area of Khanyar in Srinagar. After seven years of working on his project, he now has three trees laden with oranges. Most of the oranges he has been gifting to his friends.
Manzoor, a 50-year-old businessman, said that the seed of the orange trees was actually a thought that came to his mind seven years ago. He then began to sow actual seeds, and he had to do it for a long time, until three of them started to sprout and grow.
“It was a failure for three years. But I kept on sowing the seeds. And it did work,” he told Kashmir Reader. “Today, the three trees in my garden have oranges.”
In Kashmir, by and large, orange trees are grown for ornamental purposes, said Aijaz Ahmad, the Director General of the Horticulture Department in the Valley. “I, too, have one at my home, but the fruit is bitter in taste.”
Kashmir’s climate does not naturally suit oranges, given the sub-zero temperatures for moths here. The region has never been known to be a citrus belt.
But Manzoor’s experiment has proven otherwise. He said that the oranges are medium in size, juicy, and quite tasty. His friends, too, have successfully grown oranges in Baramulla and Sopore from the saplings produced by the trees of Manzoor. Now he has seven more saplings ready to be dispatched to another group of friends.
There is no special knowledge required to grow oranges, Manzoor said. He simply followed the procedure for the other trees that are grown in Kashmir, and it bore fruit. In his 10 marlas (2700 sq feet) of land, he has other varieties of fruits and vegetables as well, a living example of how a small tract of land can make a family self-sufficient in fruits and vegetables.
Manzoor’s garden has strawberries, apple, loquat, figs, grapes, quince, besides six types of vegetables.
“I rarely buy from the market,” he said. “My relatives, too, get their share from here.”
His passion for growing fruits has come from his father, who taught him since childhood how to grow plants at home, Manzoor said.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz