Director Agriculture, Jammu, P. S. Rathore along with team of officers conducted an intensive tour of Samba and Kathua districts to inspect the progress of various Farmer Welfare Schemes and field activities being under taken by Department of Agriculture.Director Agriculture inspected mushroom production unit at Rakh Dhayansar, Srore established under the guidance of department with the capacity of 2500 bags, where it was informed that about Rs. 5 to 6 lakhs is being earned by the concerned farmers annually. At Village Rampur of Vijaypur Zone, Director Agriculture visited the organic cluster spared over 20 Hacters covering 50 farmers where cultivation of Exotic Vegetables like Broculli, Letuice, Red Cauliflower, nursery of different vegetables under tubular poly house and Amla as mix cropping is being undertaken successfully. Director Agriculture also inaugurated custom hiring center at village Ranjli, Ghagwal managed by a group of seven progressives farmers for which subsidy to the tune of Rs. 7.2 lakh have been provided under Sub Mission for Agriculture Mechanization (SMAM).Director Agriculture, while interacting with the farmers asked them to diversify their farming through activities under Apiculture, Mushroom, Seed Production and adoption of latest agriculture technology to achieve the goal of doubling the farmer’s income.
He stressed upon the farmers to go for the production of exotic and high value vegetables under protected and controlled conditions to get round the year production for high returns. Rathore further advised them to explore the full marketing potential of the specialized vegetable produce by Product Branding, Value Addition and Better Market Linkages.Later in Kathua district, Director visited farmer field at Village Logate where high value Dragan Fruit Crop has been grown as inter crop with vegetables on an area of 20 Kanals with high-tech drip-irrigation system. Director agriculture along with team of officers also visited organic cluster at Village Seswan, Tanda and farmers field of exotic vegetable grower, Kewal kumar of Ganga chak, Hiranagar. He directed the officers to activate the field functionaries to reach out to the farmer’s field for making them fully aware of different schemes and adhere to codal formalities while implementation of all schemes.The team of officer including Chief Agriculture Officer Samba, Jahangeer Shafi, Chief Agriculture Officer Kathua, Arun Gupta, DAO (Extension), Sanjeev Rai Gupta, ADO (Vegetable), Satish Sharma, Farm management Specialist, FTC Jammu, Deepak Kumar, SDAO, Samba, Tilak Raj Sharma, SDAO, Dayalchak, Manohar Lal and other senior officers accompanied the Director during the visit.