STATE TIMES NEWS
KATHUA: CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu under CSIR Floriculture Mission organised a farmers interactive workshop on production, crop management and value addition of floricultural crops in coordination with department of agriculture at Kathua on Thursday.
150 farmers from various agrarian zones of Kathua district participated in the programme who were imparted technical hands-on training on scientific cultivation of floricultural crops.
The QPM of high yielding variety of marigold was also distributed to the farmers. The Chief Guest, Raghunandan Singh, Vice Chairman, DDC Kathua while speaking at the event appreciated the outreach of CSIR-IIIM under the mission for providing technical knowledge and quality inputs for the benefit of the farmers of the district.
He further added that such programmes, create greater awareness about the initiatives of the government that are oriented for farmer welfare.
While addressing the farmers, Dr Zabeer Ahmad, Director CSIR-IIIM informed that CSIR since past more than a decade CSIR has launched many mission programmes for handholding the farmers for their economic prosperity and inclusive growth.
He further informed that with the impactful work done by CSIR in various projects, CSIR tableau will be showcasing its technological accomplishments at the Republic Day parade this year.
In his address to the participating farmers, Rakesh Minhas, Deputy Commissioner, Kathua assured of all support in conducting skill oriented programmes in value addition of flowers. Tejinder Singh Wazir, member J&K Kisaan Advisory Board who was present at the event appreciated the efforts being made for the development of the floriculture sector in the UT through various activities under the mission and expressed his gratitude to Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of Science and Technology for his contributions in enhancing the economic status of farmer community.
Dr Shahid Rasool Nodal Scientist of the Mission while emphasizing the need for adoption of advanced scientific and technological approaches for achieving quality and promising crop yields informed that CSIR Floriculture Mission through its various verticals is actively handholding the farmers of the J&K UT for their enhanced income generation and gainful employment opportunities.
Efforts are made through such trainings to also generate skilled human resource for value addition of floricultural crops to develop different floral products.
Earlier in the programme welcome address was given by Sanjeev Rai Gupta, Chief Agriculture Officer, Kathua who thanked the mission team of CSIR IIIM to organise the event for the benefit of floriculture farmers in Kathua.
In the technical sessions of the workshop, lecture on scientific cultivation of Marigold was delivered by Dr Iqra Farooq Sr. Project Associate, CSIR-IIIM and Dr Vishal Mahajan, Head KVK, Kathua informed the farmers about the use of bio-inoculants in floriculture crop.
Farmers were also given method demonstration for quality nursery production and its management. The event was conducted under the patronage of Dr Zabeer Ahmed Director, CSIR IIIM Jammu.