Kishtwar, Dec 8: The Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Kishtwar in collaboration with SKUAST Jammu will “revive and reintroduce” Black Zeera cultivation in the district.
On the directions of the Director Agriculture, Jammu, K K Sharma, and under the guidance of District Development Commissioner, Kishtwar, Dr Devansh Yadav, the department distributed 60,000 Black Zeera Tubers among 30 progressive farmers of the Block Padder (funded through NABARD and procured from Himachal Pradesh) under the close supervision of Chief Agriculture Officer, (CAO) Amjad Hussain Malik and in collaboration with SKUAST, Jammu.
During the distribution, the CAO Kishtwar interacted with the farmers and made them aware of the cultivation of Black Zeera on commercial lines. Moreover, the district’s agriculture department for the first time laid 20,000 Black Zeera Tubers for revival/rejuvenation over 10 kanals of land in the Zeera Research Farm, Atholi, Padder. The same tubers have been introduced at Saffron Development Farm, Berwar, Kishtwar on a trial basis.
The Chief Agriculture Officer asked the concerned officers to supervise the activities regarding Zeera cultivation and record its data for future reference. He mentioned the utility of spice which, he said, “will only become successful if it is introduced in other parts of non-traditional areas of the district in the future”.
