Targets to produce 1 lakh seedling this fiscal

Jammu : In a bid to meet the demand of farmers of Jammu division, the Department of Horticulture Jammu has set a target of grafting two lakh walnut seedlings in departmental nurseries in the division for producing one lakh grafted plants in the current financial year.
In this context, the Director Horticulture Jammu, Ram Savak Friday conducted an extensive tour of District Udhampur to review the progress of departmental nurseries to meet the target of grafting one lakh walnut seedlings in nurseries of Udhampur district.
He visited Govt. Fruit plant nursery Satyan in Ramnagar zone, wherein Twenty five thousand walnut seedlings have been grafted. He instructed the Officers to work with zeal and emphasized on timely completion of the operation to get the desired results and provide quality plant material of Walnut to the farmers for the next year.
It is pertinent to mention here that the grafted Walnut plants come to bearings within 03 years and will provide good quality of Walnut kernels which automatically increase the farmer’s income. Horticulture is the mainstay of JK’s economy, for which quality planting material is the prerequisite.
The Director Horticulture also laid stress on the utilization of available land and other resources in full to achieve the allotted targets.
Later, the Director started the plantation drive at Dehari, Ramnagar along with District Development Council Member Mool Raj (Ramnagar-I) and also motivated the farmers to come forward to take the maximum benefits of ongoing Horticulture schemes. He also distributed power tillers among beneficiaries at Zone Ramnagar. The Director asked the officers to establish a High Density mother block of Walnut plants in Panjod nursery to boost the production of G walnut.
The District Development Council member (Ramnagar-I) also appealed to the farmers to come forward and associate with the department and keep a close liaison with the field functionaries to get the latest know-how about the different schemes and technologies.
Chief Horticulture Officer, Rajinder Kumar Lochan, D L Subject Matter Specialist, Raivati Raman Sharma, District Horticulture Officer, S. Parminder Singh and Horticulture Development Officer Ramnagar also accompanied the Director Horticulture Jammu during the tour.