District Development Commissioner, Dr Sagar Dattatray Doifode today flagged off a group of 57 farmers of various blocks of the district for an exposure visit to horticulture centres of the state.The visit has been organised by the Department of Horticulture under Centrally Sponsored Schemes Agricultural Technology Management Agency, (ATMA) and Mission for Integrated Development of Agriculture, (MIDH). The participating farmers belonged to both temperate and sub-tropical areas of district.During the tour, the farmers will visit Badolla Nursery and Food & Vegetable Preservation Centre at Udhampur and for the next three days they will be trained at Ramban where they will be introduced to trimming, pruning, budding and grafting of temperate crops like apple, walnut, apricot, peach, plum and pear. The trainees will also be introduced to modern methods of strawberry propagation and olive cultivation besides oil extraction thereof. Besides, the farmers will also be taught about plant-diseases, pests and plant health management besides visiting Model Nursery Batote.Earlier, Chief Horticulture Officer VK Gupta briefed the DDC about the tour.Horticulture Development Officer, Rajinder Kumar, accompanying the farmers during the tour.District Level Subject Matter Specialist, Raghunath Upadhyay was also present at the occasion.