To promote Horticulture in the Kandi Belt of Bhalwal Block, the Department of Horticulture Jammu today organized Kissan Ghosti at Government Fruit Plant Nursery Mishriwalla.Chairman District Development Council Jammu, Bharat Bushan was the chief guest on the occasion, while Joginder Singh, DDC Councilor was Guest of Honor in the programme.Kuldeep Bhagat, Chairman Block Development Council, Bhalwal; S. Sarbjit Singh, Chief Horticulture Officer Jammu; Vijay Kumar Angurana, District Horticulture Officer Jammu; Sanjeev Kumar Karlupia, District Level Subject Matter Specialist (Entomology); Sandeep Gupta, District Level Subject Matter Specialist (Pomology); Sandeep Sharma, Horticulture Development Officer Bhalwal, besides Sarpanches, Panches, progressive orchardists and farmers participated in the Kissan Ghosti. Bharat Bushan, while addressing the participants, advised them to adopt Horticulture especially in Kandi area as it can fetch them better returns from limited resources. The present schemes/ programmes of the department are farmer oriented and beneficial to them and by adopting horticulture the socio economic conditions of the poor farmers can be raised, he said. He appreciated the role of officers and field functionaries of the Horticulture Department for educating the farmers about different schemes/ programmes of the department.
He also presented license for operating Private Horticulture Nursery to Sh. Anita Devi D/o Krishan Singh R/o Bhalwal.The Chief Horticulture Officer, Jammu, while interacting with the farmers, briefed them about different schemes/ programmes of the department presently under implementation in the district. He urged them to come forward open heartedly to avail incentives available under various centrally sponsored as well as state sector schemes. He further stressed on the need of creation of water sources like Deep Bore-well, water Harvesting tank, shallow bore-well, Dug well etc with the help of incentives available with the department as it can play a vital role in improving production and productivity of fruit crops in kandi areas.The DLSMS (Entomology) educated the farmers about various insect- pest and diseases of sub tropical fruit crops like Mango, Anola, Litchi etc and their control measures.The DLSMS (Pomology) briefed the participants about incentives available for establishment of farm machinery banks / custom hiring centres under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme SMAM. He also highlighted the utility of departmental facilitation centres for the benefit of the farming community.Sandeep Sharma, Horticulture Development Officer compared the proceedings of Kissan Ghosti.