Horticulture department organizes awareness camp in Kathua

Kathua: The Department of Horticulture Friday organized a mega awareness camp here at village Sahar.
Director Horticulture, Rakesh Kumar Srangal, was the chief guest, while Additional District Development Commissioner, Shubra Sharma, was the guest of honor.
Over 200 orchardists from Sahar and its adjoining villages participated in the camp.
Deputy Director Sericulture, Anju Koul, Chief Horticulture Officer, Chaman Lal Sharma, District level Subject Matter Specialist, Sanjeev Kumar and Horticulture Development Officers of different blocks, Sarpanchs, Panchs and prominent citizens were present on the occasion.
The Director asked the farmers to take optimum advantage of such awareness programs to enhance their knowledge in the latest techniques of farming. He urged upon the Sarpanchs and Panchs of the area to take up horticulture related issues of their areas with the department for redressal. He stressed the farmers to integrate the Horticulture with other allied sectors viz. Agriculture, Floriculture and Sericulture to get round the year income.
The ADDC asked the field functionaries to strive hard for achieving the targets in full and also conduct regular visits to the farmer’s fields for on spot solutions of their technical issues. She exhorted upon the Sericulture department to redouble their efforts to make kathua number 1 in cocoon production which occupies 3rd rank in the state.
The Chief Horticulture apprised the meeting about the status of Mango village established under CAPEX 2018-19 saying that about 100 ha of land would be covered under the project in four years. Besides, 22.85 ha land has been covered in Mango villages, Janglote, Sahar, logate, Kharote Budhi, Mearth, Nanan, Bhallwar and Ghati during the current year.
Sarpanchs, Bholi Singh, Mohan Singh and Om Parkash Panchayat Sahar, Kharote and Budhi respectively spoke on the occasion and assured the department of all support towards promoting Horticulture in the district.
On the occasion, the Director along with other dignitaries released a handbook titled “Mango village for entrepreneurship Development of farmers” which will serve as handout (technological tool) for beneficiaries of mango village
The program concluded with distribution of improved toolkits among the trainees of the Skill development program and beneficiaries of Mango village. Besides, 500 mulberry plants were also distributed among the participants to give fillip to peripheral plantation in mango orchards.
Later, the Director inspected the Mango orchards of progressive farmers Shiv Kumar and Raghubir Singh. He was accompanied by Chief Horticulture Officer, Horticulture Development officer and information wing of Directorate of Horticulture Jammu.