Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 26: Department of Horticulture Jammu conducted a farmers’ awareness cum interaction programme at Panchayat Pahariwala of Khour block.
The event was chaired by Director Horticulture Jammu Ram Savak and was attended by officers of the department, besides farmers, local Sarpanch and PRI members.
Addressing the farmers/fruit growers, the Director stressed on the need of High Density Plantation in the area. He said that the rainy season is very suitable for new plantation especially in the ‘Kandi’ and therefore, farmers should adopt cluster approach to establish new orchards. He said the department is providing all assistance to the farmers and they should take benefits of the Central and UT sponsored schemes of the department.
Ram Savak deliberated on Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF). He asked farmers to form Self Help Groups (SHG’s) and associate with Horticulture Department, which will help them in setting up of Micro Food Processing units under the PMFME scheme. Further, he urged farmers to adopt integrated farming in their fields and avail the benefits on different components viz. bore well, water harvesting tanks, drip irrigation, mechanization, protected cultivation, etc.
Earlier, the Chief Horticulture Officer Jammu Sarbjeet Singh impressed upon farmers to go for compact plantation comprising of at least 4 beneficiaries covering an area of minimum 200 kanals following which irrigation source like community bore well for the plantation may be created free of cost and also establish Custom Hiring Centres/Farm Machinery Banks wherein the Department is providing 40% to 80% subsidy which will ultimately generate employment opportunities for the youth.
DLSMS (Pomology) Sandeep Gupta elaborated in detail about the various schemes of the department in vogue. After persuasion by the officers of the department, on-spot enrollment of the farmers for new plantation in an area of 10 Hectare was done.
HDO Khour Amit Saraf carried out the proceedings of the programme.
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