Agriculture, Horticulture Departments celebrate ‘World Food Day’
Organic food essential to one and all: Navin Kumar Choudhary
Srinagar: The Agriculture Production and Farmer’s Welfare Department organized a series of events in all districts of Kashmir division to celebrate “World Food Day”.
The theme of this year’s celebration was “Safe food now for a healthy tomorrow”.
Principal Secretary Agriculture Production and Farmer’s Welfare Department, Navin Kumar Choudhary, while speaking on the occasion, highlighted the importance of this day.
He said World Food Day is celebrated annually to promote global awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger. He said organic food, free of pesticides, processing or additives is essential to one and all and it not only promises good health but also ensures a brighter future for the posterity.
Navin Kumar said that the primary focus of the government is to tackle global hunger and strive to eradicate hunger across the world. He said about 821 million people in the world are chronically undernourished, 99% of them live in developing nations.
Navin Choudhary said that on this World Food Day we should respect food and food development and finally support food-related businesses and retailers.
Meanwhile, a training program was organized by the department at Tahab Pulwama as part of the program.
Speaking on the occasion, Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal, said that the department of Agriculture under the “National Mission on Edible Oils” has already initiated a massive campaign to double the area under Oilseeds (Mustard) in the valley.
Director said that in the honour of our farming community, the department has organized various events in all the districts of valley to celebrate the World Food Day. We are providing farmers with different types of farm machinery so that their labour expenses could be minimized in a scientific manner.
Chief Agriculture Officer Pulwama, G.M. Dhobi, District Agriculture Officers, Shahnawaz Shah and Mohammad Munaf Bhat besides other senior officers were present on the occasion.
Meanwhile, the Department of Horticulture Kashmir celebrated “World Food Day” at Directorate of Horticulture Rajbagh Srinagar.
On the occasion, Director General Horticulture Kashmir, Ajaz Ahmad Bhat, highlighted the importance of celebrating “World Food Day”, and said that future of food is in our hands and nobody should be left hungry or made to suffer from any form of malnutrition.
He further said that we need sustainable agri-food systems that are capable of nourishing 10 billion people by 2050. He emphasized on spreading awareness among the general masses about reducing food losses and wastage, and in view of the food shortage he stressed on reviving food system.
Later, Director General toured District Kulgam and Anantnag, where he visited various orchards and met many farmers. He said that we all indebted to the farming community, who despite many odds do their best to produce food for us.
He encouraged the farmers to rely on organic method of farming and refrain from unnecessary usage of insecticides and pesticides on the produce.
He added that land being a limited factor, we should shift towards high-Density plantation and intercropping, for better production and yield, and encouraged the farmers to embrace different Departmental scheme for better production with minimal inputs.
He further said that the Department is committed to provide all sort of assistance to the farmers in doubling their income by 2022 and looking forward for the necessary cooperation of farmers to achieve the desired goal.
