Entrepreneurship, key for a developed agriculture sector: Director Agriculture Kashmir

Srinagar: The agro climatic conditions in Kashmir are one of the best in the country for the production of fresh vegetables and coupled with latest agriculture interventions we are able to produce fresh vegetables round the year, stated Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal.

The Director said this after inaugurating a vegetable (organic/ conventional) market at district Pulwama.

Speaking on the occasion, the Director said that one more factor that distinguishes and gives us an edge over the rest of country is that our vegetable crops get ready to consumption when most of the states do not have their crops ready, therefore it increases the avenues for our commercial vegetable growers to market their produce in and outside the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that vegetable cultivation has a great potential in Pulwama and the introduction of organic and exotic vegetable cultivation has added more dimensions to this trade. Holistic, diversified, integrated farming is the key to success in this enterprise and entrepreneurship is the key for the developed agriculture sector, he added.

Later, the Director visited Seed Multiplication Farm Padgampora where he inaugurated the mechanized seedling transplantation of DAPOG raised paddy nurseries. He asked the concerned officers to organize training programs for the educated youth of adjacent villages in terms of seedling raising on commercial lines so that the entrepreneurship culture could be promoted among the youth.

He said the department is committed to women and youth empowerment in the agriculture sector because the future lies within the expertise of our generations to come.

Director Agriculture was accompanied by Joint Director Agriculture Extension Mohammad Qasim Gani, and other senior officers of the department.