The Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal today visited Hi-tech poly houses at Kitchen Garden premises (Lalmandi, Srinagar) to take stock of the preparations for the distribution of seedlings among the farmers and agriculture entrepreneurs.The Director visited different blocks of the hi-tech installation and talked to the technical experts and concerned officers.He was informed that this year the Department will commence the distribution of vegetable seedlings among the farmers from 15th of February (in phased manner) which is 10 days before the scheduled date.Speaking on the occasion, the Director said that the department has been successful in achieving the idea of providing the farmers with round the year availability of seedlings of different vegetable (traditional /exotic) crops to a very large extent.
Amid changing global economic scenarios, the Department is working on a multi dimensional roadmap to promote and secure the economic interests of the farming community, he added.Iqbal said that in addition to the commercial vegetable cultivation, the vegetable enterprise is being adopted by the kitchen garden lovers, backyard farmers throughout the region and has therefore raised the demand for vegetable seedlings manifold.Director Agriculture asked the concerned officers and technical staff of the hi-tech poly houses to add more vegetable crops (traditional/exotic) to their lot, so that the farmers could be provided with more options to add to their basket.Earlier, the Director visited hi-tech poly house installations of district Budgam and impressed upon the concerned officers to ensure that the quality seedlings of different vegetable crops are made available to the farmers well in time.