Excelsior Correspondent
ANANTNAG, June 16: Minister for Horticulture, Housing and Culture Raman Bhalla today conducted an extensive tour of District Anantnag to get feedback of the various activities being carried out in saving the orchards from any kind of disease and issued directions to the horticulture officers for sensitizing the owners of the orchards about the medicines to be useful for saving their earning avenues.
Interacting with the officers of Horticulture Department after inspecting Fruit Plant Nursery, Bijbehara in Anantnag district here, the Minister asked the officers to gear up their men and machinery for effective implementation of Horticulture Mission in the State.
Mr. Bhalla said that Jammu and Kashmir has tremendous potential of exporting fruit to other markets of the country and asked the officers to explore new markets with all infrastructural facilities to promote state’s horticulture produce across the country. He called upon the fruit and vegetables growers to avail the benefits of schemes like Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayan States, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, National Mission on Micro Irrigation and Agriculture Technology Management Agency.
The Minister said Government has already taken a number of steps to encourage farmers for developing high-quality fruit trees to fetch optimum returns. He also asked the concerned officers to make all the departmental nurseries fully functional. He said that the Government has proposed to set up a Walnut Board in the State to give boost to the Walnut production in a big way on scientific lines.
Mr. Bhalla said need of the hour is to exploit the optimum potential in the sector by setting up of walnut scientific processing units in various areas of the State. He said that the sector can be an economic engine of the State in general and farming community in particular as horticulture is the back bone of the State’s economy.
The Minister directed the officers to provide hi-yielding varieties of plants to the farmers and said that there will be no compromise on quality of the material being provided to the needy persons. He directed them to sensitize the farmers about the latest technologies of science so that the same could be percolating to the growers in the field.
He said there is also need to train the horticulture interventions, adding that the university needs to draw up a calendar of short term training programme to be conducted either at the varsity or by way of workshops to be held in the office premises of the department across the valley.
Chief Horticulture Officer, Anantnag along with his team of officers gave him detailed account of developmental activities being carried out in the district.
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