Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 15: To promote horticulture in Kandi belt of Bhalwal Block in Jammu District, Horticulture Department organized today a Kissan Gosthi at Government Fruit Plant Nursery, Mishriwala.
Former MLA and Chairman District Development Council (DDC) Jammu Bharat Bhushan was the chief guest of the function, which was presided over by Chief Horticulture Officer, Jammu, Sarbjit Singh. A large number of farmers participated in the programme.
Speaking on the occasion, Bharat Bhushan advised the farmers to adopt horticulture as it can fetch them better returns from limited resources. He said the existing schemes/programmes of Horticulture Department are farmer oriented and beneficial to the farming community. He said by adopting horticulture, the socio-economic conditions of the poor farmers can be raised. On the occasion, the DDC chairman presented license for operating private horticulture nursery to a woman.
Earlier, Chief Horticulture Officer (CHO) Jammu, while interacting with the farmers, briefed them about different schemes/programmes of the Department presently under implementation in the district. He urged them to come forward open heartedly to avail incentives available under various centrally sponsored as well as state sector schemes.
The CHO further stressed on the need of creation of water sources like deep bore-well, water harvesting tank, shallow bore-well, dug well, etc with the help of incentives available with the department as it can play a vital role in improving production and productivity of fruit crops in Kandi areas.
DLSMS (Entomology) educated the farmers about various insects, pests and diseases of sub tropical fruit crops like Mango, Amla, Litchi, etc and their control measures while DLSMS (Promology) briefed the participants about incentives available for establishment of farm machinery banks/custom hiring centres under centrally sponsored scheme SMAM.
Many other officers of Horticulture Department and Sarpanchs & Panchs of the area also participated in the programme. Horticulture Development Officer Sandeep Sharma conducted proceedings of the programme.