Director Agriculture Kashmir, Altaf Aijaz Andrabi today conducted an extensive tour of District Budgam to assess the impact of unprecedented dry spell on standing crops.During the day long tour he visited Paddy Seed Village Kanihama, Potato seed villages Kanidajan, Vegetable clusters at Doniwara, Banihar and farmers field of various villages of the district.During the visit Director said Global change in weather dynamics is making a visible impact on agriculture scenario in Kashmir so the need of the hour is to upgrade the agriculture operations and strategies as per the demand.Director Agriculture impressed upon the officers and crop experts of the department to visit the fields and advise farmers with respect to different preventive measures and modifications in the agricultural practices.Chief Agriculture Officer Budgam was asked to mobilize his field functionaries to advice the farmers to take remedial measures and save Kharief sown crops from adverse weather conditions, Andrabi directed the field functionaries to be in the field during the crisis time and acquaint the farmers and growers regarding the water management techniques to meet water scarcity during the dry spell.
Later Director Agriculture, distributed free of cost 20 motorized paddy threshers among the panchayat halqas of Sub-Division Chadoora in a function held at SDAO Office Chadoora following all SOP’s regarding Covid-19. Joint Director Agriculture Inputs Amir ud din Andrabi, Joint Director Agriculture Extension Chowdhary M. Iqbal, Project Coordinator Mushroom Farooq Ahmad Shah, Deputy Director Agriculture Syed Waseem Ahamad Shah, and other concerned officers were accompanying the director.The six days Saffron e-trading Awareness program was also concluded at India International Kashmir Saffron Trading Centre (IIKSTC) Dusso Pampore.The program was organised to acquaint the saffron growers and sellers with the mechanism, protocol to be adopted for post harvest management of saffron and its e- auctioning under Kashmir saffron brand.During the Concluding Ceremony, the Director said that these types of awareness programs will be a solution to all the grievances regarding marketing of Saffron.Director said the economy of saffron growers will get a boost as saffron will be sold, graded and exported to various countries from this platform only on a premium cost as Kashmir saffron is in great demand across the world.Later Director distributed certificates among the participating saffron growers.