KATHUA: A plantation drive was today launched by Director Horticulture Jammu, Ram Sevak at village Gurha Maradian of block Hiranagar, village Bagial of block Barnoti and village Janglote of block Kathua by planting saplings of Mango and Litchi to cover an area of 20 kanal at each location.
The plantation material was provided to beneficiaries under CAPEX High Density Plantation scheme at the rate of 400 plants per hectare.
Apart from farmers, Chief Horticulture Officer Kathua, Sushil Kumar Angurana; DHO Kathua, Varinder Sharma; DLSMS, Bharat Bushan Gupta; DLSMS, Ragunath Upadhya and Vishal Magotra (I/c Horticulture zones Hira nagar & Kathua respectively) and HDO Barnoti , Anju Bala were also present at the plantation drive.
The Director interacted with farmers at all the locations and deliberated on the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) under which farmers are provided incentives, assistance to diversify farming activities. He sensitized the gathering about the main components of the programme viz: DAKSH- Learning Management System related to skill development, SATHI- Dashboard to apply online for different Government schemes, etc.
He impressed upon farmers to adopt the Horticulture sector on commercial lines by switching over to Mechanization, Modified High Density Plantation, Strawberry Plantation, Aloe vera Plantation etc.
The Chief Horticulture Officer also motivated the farmers to adopt Horticulture on commercial basis and imparted them awareness about online Jan Sugum portal and Kissan sathi portal to apply for different components of Horticulture schemes.