Director Horticulture Jammu, Ram Savak, who is also Prabhari of Panchayat Lower Narayna of block Khour, today chaired a meeting to review the implementation of decisions taken in the Back 2 Village 4 progamme wherein the representatives of various departments besides Sarpanch and Panches of the Panchayat participated.
During the meeting, a road map was prepared for the developmental works to be undertaken for the overall development of the Panchayat.
On the occasion, the Department of Horticulture Jammu organised a one day farmers’ awareness cum training programme on Canning and Processing of Fruits at panchayat Kot Maira upper under the chairmanship of Director Horticulture Jammu.
Chief Horticulture Officer Jammu S. Sarbjeet Singh, Chief Canning & Processing Instructor, Gul Sayeed, DL Subject Matter Specialist, Sandeep Gupta, MCC, Vinod Wanchoo, HDO, Amit Saraf besides Sarpanches, Panches, women entrepreneurs and farmers participated in the programme.
While addressing the farmers of the area, Director briefed the farmers about various Centrally and UT sponsored schemes of the department in detail and urged them to avail incentives under different schemes of the department.
He impressed upon the trainees to associate with the Horticulture Department and form Self Help Groups (SHGs) for setting up of small fruit and vegetables processing units.
He assured that the department will help them in setting up of Micro Food Processing units under the PMFME scheme, a landmark initiative of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan for the value addition of fruit products which will not only provide employment opportunities to the beneficiaries, but will also make them self reliant and henceforth they can play an important role in enhancing the family income.
Earlier, during the programme, the Department provided an on spot training for the processing and preservation of fruits and vegetables to convert it into value added products such as Jam, Pickle, Preserve, Candy, Sauces, Squash, etc.
The women entrepreneurs showed keen interest in the training programme and learned the methods of processing and preservation of fruits and vegetables. Rajni Devi and Sharda Devi, Sarpanches of Panchayat Kot Maira upper & Lower Narayna respectively were also present in the Awareness cum Training Programme.
The Director also planted a sapling of Litchi plant for starting compact plantation in farmers’ field at village troti, covering an area of 60 kanals. Later, the Director distributed certificates to the 40 numbers of trainees who participated in the “One Month Training Programme on Fruit and Vegetables Preservation” held at village Akhnoor.