The Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal today visited hailstorm affected Fakir Gujree, Dhara, Syed Pora and some other adjacent villages of Harwan zone of Srinagar.During the visit, the Director distributed 20,000 seedlings of different vegetable crops, fodder, maize seeds, among the recent hailstorm affected farmers in presence of PRI representatives including DDC Dara Mohammad Shaban Chopan, DDC Member Fakir Gujree Shaista, Sarpanch Fakir Gujree Shamima Akhter and Chief Agriculture Officer Srinagar Mohammad Younis Chowdhary.A number of deputations of farmers met Director and gave him their feedback and expressed satisfaction over the immediate mitigation steps initiated by the Department and technical guidance provided by the field functionaries to the affected farmers.
The Director said that hailstorm is a natural phenomenon to happen but Department is committed and would take all the necessary steps to minimize the impact of losses to the farming community and distribution of different inputs among the affected farmers is one step in this direction. He asked the concerned officers/field functionaries to work shoulder to shoulder with the hailstorm affected farmers of the area and provide with them every possible technical support needed under prevailing circumstances so that the economic security of the farmers could be ensured.Director emphasized on the concerned officers to introduce some special farmer centric initiatives in the hailstorm affected areas so that the losses caused to different agriculture crops could be mitigated.