Advisor to Governor Khurshid Ahmad Ganai today informed that Rs 60 crore have been provided to the department of Horticulture for developing its quarantine facilities under public sector.He said this after inaugurating one day Horticulture conference organised to discuss the issues for promoting horticulture sector with various stakeholders.Vice chancellor SKUAST Kashmir Dr. Nazir Ahmad, Union Joint Secretary Food processing, Trag Kumar Gupta and Union Joint Secretary Agriculture and Cooperative Dr. Shakeel Ahmad were present on the occasion.Mr. Ganai said that Rs 4.75 crore have also been provided for developing high density plants and root stocks by importing material from Europe. He stressed on comprehensive development of Horticulture and agriculture sectors through skill development for providing better employment avenues.He directed the concerned officers to constitute Horticulture Boards with representatives of fruit growers and entrepreneurs as their members.He impressed upon the Officers of Law enforcement Agencies to maintain a strict check on quality and rates of fungicides, Pesticides, Fertilizers and other Agriculture, Horticulture products.
The concerned officers of the Departments informed that six mobile soil testing vans and five soil testing laboratories have been made functional to facilitate the farmers. Regarding the National Mission on saffron it was given out that saffron production is being taken up on modern lines through National Horticulture Board.Farmers and entrepreneurs demanded adequate steps for improving the quality of fruits along with improving storage and better marketing facilities.Director Horticulture P.K Gupta, Director Agriculture Kashmir Showkat Ahmad Beig, Director HPMC, MD Agro Industries Development Corporation, MD SIDCO, MD National Horticulture Board, other officers and a large number of fruit growers and entrepreneurs from all over the valley attended the conference.Later Joint Secretary Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative visited saffron park which is being developed under the National Saffron Mission, he also visited the Saffron fields and interacted with the saffron growers and inspected the Saffron development research station of SKUAST at Dusoo Pampore.He asked Director Agriculture Kashmir for deploying concerned officers for specialized trainings so that they can work at newly developed spice park coming up in the month of July.