Kashmir’s potato pits are vanishing – and generations of knowledge could be buried for ever

Farmers in Gurez store their harvests underground to last the Himalayan winter.

As the practice fades, local varieties and handed-down skills are disappearing too Hajra Begum rolls a potato in her hands, checking its skin for cuts, soft spots and signs of rot. After a day harvesting in her family’s field in Chorwan, a remote mountain village in Gurez, Indian-administered Kashmir, she is sorting the crop for winter storage. Some of the potatoes will feed her family…