Jammu, : Director Horticulture Jammu Gul Syed Wednesday interacted with a group of 160 farmers, with a majority of women farmers, from Kathua and Samba Districts. The farmers were on an Inter-District exposure visit to the Mega Fruit Plant Nursery Chakroi, organized under the MIDH Scheme.
During the interaction, the Director held detailed discussions with the farmers regarding various schemes and initiatives of the Department of Horticulture. He encouraged them to adopt modern, high-value and commercially viable horticultural practices for improving productivity and farm income.
The farmers group from District Kathua was accompanied by DL-SMS (Pomology) Sandeep Gupta; Horticulture Development Officer Sanjeev Singh Andotra and Horticulture Development Officer Hem Raj. The delegation of the farmers from district Samba was accompanied by Horticulture Development Officer Rakesh Kumar.
The exposure visit was organised to provide the participating farmers with practical knowledge of horticultural orchards, modern orchard management practices and various schemes being implemented by the Department of Horticulture.
The Director elaborated on various aspects of horticulture schemes and emerging high-value cash crops were discussed. The farmers were informed about cultivation of Strawberry, Kiwi and Dragon Fruit, with particular focus on the Guava Taiwan Pink variety, besides the important horticultural interventions and departmental schemes. The farmers were also apprised of the opportunities available in fruit processing and value addition, with emphasis on adopting modern technologies and commercially viable horticultural practices.
Nursery Registration Officer Satish Kumar and Assistant Director Sunil Gupta were also present during the interaction. Other officers present included Parminder Singh, I/C District Horticulture Officer, Mega Fruit Plant Nursery, Chakroi; Varinder Bhagat, District Training Officer; Abhinav Gupta, District Horticulture Officer; Sunil Mahnori, Manager-cum-Chemist and Zia-ur-Rashid, DL-SMS (Entomology).
The programme provided the participating farmers, particularly the women farmers, an opportunity to gain first-hand practical exposure, technical knowledge and direct interaction with the senior officers of the Department of Horticulture.
