Photo source: Ahmedabad Mirror Naveed Qazi, Sustainability Analyst Resilience Through a Forgotten Mountain Crop Gurez Valley in north Kashmir has long been defined by its geographical isolation. The region has a short growing season as prolonged winter snowfall of nearly five months each year restricts agricultural activity. Yet these constraints have made Gurez Valley potentially suitable for cultivating buckwheat, a traditional Himalayan pseudo-cereal valued for its short maturity period, nutritional richness and a high tolerance to marginal growing conditions. While historically a staple heritage food in Gurez, buckwheat cultivation plummeted over the last few decades amid changes in food consumption, and growing availability of subsidised rice and wheat. In one of the most widely cited reviews of buckwheat improvement, Campbell (1997), writing in International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), described buckwheat as a short duration crop well adapted to marginal mountain e...