Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Radha Mohan Singh, visited Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture Srinagar to take stock of its functioning.Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, Minister of State for Agriculture Production, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Principal Secretary Agriculture Production, Sundeep Kumar Nayak, accompanied the Union Minister.The Union Minister was briefed about the working and achievements of the Institute and progress in the implementation of various schemes.Speaking on the occasion, Radha Mohan Singh stressed on the plantation of trees along the border of agriculture fields, intercropping, commercialization of technologies and varieties developed by the Institute.He also pointed out the need for cooperation and collaboration of the Institute with State Horticulture Department and SKUAST for better research and extension work.
The Union Minister directed the concerned that institute should focus on developing frontier technologies and give prominence to technology commercialization.He also called for the need of paradigm shift for ensuring sustainable productivity in horticultural crops and conservation of local varieties. He asked the officers to ensure farmers are provided soil health cards to carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for the individual farms to help farmers to improve productivity through the judicious use of inputs.The Union minister directed the CITH administration to speed up the process of finalization of the recruitment process to give a boost to its capacity building. He asked the employees of the institute to work with added zeal and dedication for the overall benefit of farmers of the State.Director CITH Dr D B Singh, Senior officers of Agriculture Department and other concerned were also present on the occasion.