Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Agriculture Production Department, Atal Dulloo, today flagged off a consignment of vegetable seedlings of tomato, brinjal, chillies, kale, saag khanyari, red cabbage, green cabbage for Gurez under Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP).
Speaking on the occasion, ACS said that efforts are being made for vertical and horizontal expansion of vegetable cultivation and this consignment was part of that. He said that department is endeavoring to extend vegetable cultivation to far flung areas of J&K and sending first consignment of vegetable seedlings to Gurez is one such step in this direction. He said to boost the vegetable cultivation in far off areas like Gurez, the department has already taken a number of initiatives.
Dulloo said that the government is committed towards development of agriculture and allied sectors in all the regions of J&K. He said that vegetable cultivation has a huge potential to boost socio-economic landscape of the concerned farmers.
ACS said that commercial vegetable farming has been identified as a key factor in achieving the economic prosperity of farming community. He said the promotion of vegetable/exotic vegetables under open and hi-tech protected cultivation is one among the 29 projects recently approved by the government. He said the implementation of projects under HADP, especially in the vegetable sector, are expected to revolutionize the vegetable sector in J&K.
Director Agriculture, Kashmir, Chowdhury Mohammad Iqbal, Director Horticulture, G R Mir and other senior officers were present on the occasion.