The Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhury Mohammad Iqbal today visited Vegetable farm Sumbal Bandipora to inspect the interventions by the department in different blocks of the farm. He also held interactions with the concerned technical experts.
Expressing his views, the Director said that for more than two years the departmental farms are undergoing a process of transformation. He said these farms have to play a bigger role in coming days both in terms of catering the demand of farmers for different kinds of seeds besides to work as model centres for cultivation of different agricultural crops.
He said that amid climate change, declining land resources and due to the relevant challenges, agriculture operations need to be strategically diversified so that the impact could be minimized. He said the agriculture activities should be in a way that maximum output is received from minimum resources.
The Director said the vegetable farming is highly prone to losses as multiple factors like poor yield, inclement weather often plays spoilsport. In such a situation, better knowledge about vegetable cultivation and availability of quality inputs (plant material, seed) can significantly enable the farmers to undertake informed decisions and reap better profits.
Later, the Director visited the Potato Seed processing unit at Lalmandi Srinagar. He asked officers to strictly follow the guidelines for post harvest management of potato seed so that the farmers could get quality seeds available.
The Director was accompanied by Deputy Director Agriculture Planning and some senior officers of the department.