Poonch: Minister for horticulture Seyed Bashrat Ahamad Bukhari Tuesday visited fruit plant nursery Poonch- a basic public sector nursery for multiplication of good quality plant material for distribution among the farmers.
The Minister was accompanied by DDC Tariq Ahmad Zargar , Director horticulture Jammu Bhawani Rakwal, chief horticulture officer Sushil Kumar besides horticulture development officers of the district.
During the visit, the Minister held detailed discussions with officers on various aspects for increasing horticulture production in the area.
He said the district is blessed with favorable climatic conditions for development of horticulture and asked the department to motivate the farmers to develop orchards for improving their economic condition.
He laid main stress on increasing the walnut, pecan nut, apricot and apple production keeping in view favourable conditions and scope of local marketability.
It was given out that during last year, 15000 walnut seeds and 9000 pecan nut seeds have been sown and seedling of apple apricot raised in the nursery.
The horticulture Minister instructed to produce the potential based fruit plants in the nursery. He also stressed on the renovation of old building in the nursery and directed DDC to get estimates from R&B department on priority.
The Minister also inspected the office of chief horticulture officer and interacted with the staff including field functionaries.
