Poonch, Sep 23: Director Horticulture Jammu, Ram Savak, on Friday visited district Poonch alongwith Sudhir Chadha (MD) Indo Dutch Horticulture technologies Pvt. Ltd Uttrakhand, and attended an awareness camp hoisted by Chief Horticulture Officer Poonch.
DDC Vice Chairperson, Mohammad Ashfaq was the Guest of honour at the event held at Chief Horticulture Office Complex and attended by HDOs of the different zone and field staff of Horticulture Department as well as allied departments.
As many as 300 farmers participated in the awareness camp.
The camp was held to discuss and assess the scope of Horticulture in district Poonch with special focus on Modified Ultra High Density and Pecannut plantation.
The Director Horticulture patiently listened to the farmers about their problems. He explained different schemes beneficial for growth development and income generation of farmers. “There are schemes with 50% to 90% subsidy and provision of loan under different CSS Schemes like PMFME, AIF, NHB etc provided through banks” he added.
The Director also talked about the advantages of establishment of small Processing Units by women with a provision of 60% subsidy against only 50% for others. He also exhorted farmers to bring soil samples and infected twigs to the lab to know the disease-causing agent. He also motivated farmers to know their potential and to work hard, believe in their potential as nothing is impossible without hard work.
The PRIs interacted with Director Horticulture and other dignitaries.
Sudhir Chadha (MD) Indo Dutch Horticulture Technologies Pvt. Ltd Uttrakhand, focused on the Modified Ultra High-density plantation and its merits. He talked about the upliftment of Horticulture in district Poonch and expressed his strong willingness to help farmers in every way related to the plantation of establishment of UHD orchards.
PRIs and farmers of different zones of district Poonch also apprised about lack of technical knowledge and marketing of fruit Crops being faced by them during plantation and harvesting season.
DDC Vice Chairperson, Mohd Ashfaq asked farmers to work with dedication and determination to achieve desired targets. Jhangir Mir Ex. MLC Poonch emphasized on processing, packaging, Grading, branding of various processed products like plum jam, pickles, Apricot squash and Jam etc as these fruits are locally available.
Later, the Director Horticulture distributed sanction letters for establishment of processing units and other components under different schemes to the beneficiaries as well as one month training programme certificates to about 50 females.
