Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 11: Department of Agriculture, Jammu, organized a one-day training programme on ‘Mushroom Cultivation’ for the farmers of Jammu district in collaboration with the J&K Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organization (ITCO).
ITCO is actively engaged in generating awareness and providing skill development training to farmers especially women and youth in agriculture.
Speaking in the inaugural session, Director Agriculture, Jammu, Dr SS Jamwal, advised mushroom entrepreneurs, growers and farmers to learn the various technical aspects of mushroom cultivation to increase their income.
He asked them to make use of every opportunity to get information with regard to different schemes being implemented by different agencies like ITCO, Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), NABARD etc.
He further advised the farmers to organize themselves into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Mushroom Grower Clubs to facilitate end to end linkage in mushroom cultivation up to marketing. He further revealed that the Spawn Production Laboratory at Talab Tillo is being upgraded and modernized for supply of good quality spawn to the farmers.
Dr Sachin Gupta, Associate Professor (Plant Pathology) and Dr Anju Bhat, Associate Professor (Post Harvest Technology), SKUAST-J, also delivered lectures on round the year cultivation of mushroom and value addition of mushroom produce, respectively.
Vinay Kumar, Senior Consultant, ITCO, delivered lecture on aims and objectives of ITCO and scope of entrepreneurship development in mushroom sector.
Technical session for mushroom cultivation and the establishment of mushroom units was conducted by Aman Jyoti Sharma, Mushroom Research Assistant, Jammu.
The farmers during interaction session demanded that mushroom cultivation should be included in the scale of finance of Kissan Credit Cards (KCC) Scheme by the banking authorities.
RL Bhagat, Chief Agriculture Officer, Jammu, Soankar, AGM, NABARD, Jammu, Matider Singh, ADO, Vegetables, Vinod Ganjoo, DAO (Ext) and Sunil Gandotra, Spawn Production Officer, Jammu, were also present during the programme.
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