Director Horticulture Kashmir, G R Mir today visited Industrial Growth Centre Lassipora, Pulwama and Aglar, Shopian. He was accompanied by Chief Horticulture Officer Pulwama, Javeed Ahmad Bhat and other field functionaries of the Department.
He inspected various CA stores, grading lines and other post-harvest infrastructure and took stock of the functioning of these infrastructures.Speaking on the occasion, the Director said that the department is committed to strengthen the post-harvest infrastructure in the valley and is exploring every possible opportunity to have the infrastructures like CA stores, Processing Units etc.
He further stressed on use of mechanization at all stages for enhancing the work productivity rather than depending upon manual work. He further advised CA Store owners to create a grower friendly atmosphere and urged them to provide quality services to the growers.
Dir further added that currently we have CA storage capacity of around 2.00 lakh metric tonne and enjoined upon the entrepreneurs to come forward and set up more CA Stores and other post-harvest units as we still have low CA storage capacity when compared to the annual production which results in distress sales.
Mir said that improved post-harvest infrastructure like CA Stores will help in keeping the Kashmiri apple in the market round the year and farmers will get good returns for their produce. He further added that switching to Hi-Density will be more effective if we have optimum post-harvest infrastructure.