The Department of Horticulture Jammu has been conducting a special series of awareness programs to educate the farming community about different schemes of the department and plantation of fruit crops.In continuation to the special series, Director Horticulture Jammu Ram Savak on Thursday conducted an extensive tour of District Udhampur and chaired a series of Awareness cum Interaction Programmes at Jaganoo, Maand & Mansar Panchayats of Udhampur district.
Chief Horticulture Officer Udhampur Rajinder Kumar Lochan; MCC Udhampur, S K S Sodhi; DLSMS, Udhampur, Raivati Raman Sharma were also present. BDC Chairman, HDOs and other officers, besides a large number of farmers including women, Sarpanch, SHGs & PRI members of the area participated.
Addressing the gathering of farmers, fruit growers, the Director stressed the need to encourage Modified High Density Plantation in the area and adopt a cluster approach to establish new orchards. He impressed upon farmers to focus on post harvest management of fruit crops by establishing processing units for fruit processing/ fruit drying/ spices preparation etc with the assistance from the department under the PMFME scheme, a landmark initiative of Aatmannirbhar Bharat Abhiyan for the value addition of fruit products which will not only reduce post harvest losses but also provide employment opportunities for the rural youth and they also become self reliant and can play an important role in enhancing the family income.
Women farmers should form their Farmers Club/ FPO’s / Self Help Group’s so that they can establish processing units on community level.The Director said that the district has huge potential for horticulture crops which must be tapped with special focus on citrus plantation as this area is very suitable for this fruit crop, having a good life and is also fetching a good price in the market.
He also inaugurated the food processing unit namely Ashish & Anmol Food Pvt. Ltd. of an entrepreneur at Maand of Zone Tikri, Udhampur for preparation of Pickles, Jams, Juices, Spices etc. established under the scheme CAPEX with the financial assistance of the department.
Earlier, Chief Horticulture Officer Udhampur welcomed the Director Horticulture and apprised him about the works going on in the field under different departmental schemes. He explained in detail about the developmental schemes of the department and discussed the incentives being provided to the orchardists for upliftment of their socio economic status.
MCC Udhampur explained in detail about the various departmental schemes to the budding entrepreneurs for establishment of fruit and vegetable preservation units as well as dry fruit processing units with the assistance of the department.
DLSMS Udhampur briefed the farmers about the various insect-pests and diseases of fruit crops and measures to control them for the successful cultivation of fruit crops.BDC Chairman Jaganoo, Sanjeet Sharma highlighted the problem of monkey menace in their area and to overcome this, he appealed the farmers to go for plantation of citrus fruits and utilize their left over vacant lands to generate income.
BDC Chairman Tikri, Nisha Sharma appreciated the efforts of the department of horticulture for organizing such programmes for generating awareness among the farming community.Later, the Director launched plantation drives at multiple locations by planting Citrus & Guava plants in the farmer’s field at village Jaganoo, Mand and Mansar of Udhampur.