SRINAGAR: The Director Horticulture Kashmir, G.R. Mir, today toured Handwara to take stock of the departmental activities in the sub-division.
At the outset of the tour, the Director visited Departmental Fruit Plant Nursery Chougal Handwara, where he took stock of various nursery operations like hoeing, weeding, summer pruning, etc.
On the occasion, he stressed the propagation of quality fruit plants, so that the department is able to compete with national as well as international competitors.
He gave on-the-spot instructions for the optimum utilization of land and other resources. He further stressed to the staff to speed up nursery operations and focus on orchard and nursery sanitation.
The Director also emphasized the field functionaries to get all the private and public nurseries of the district registered with the department and accredited with the National Horticulture Board (NHB).
Mir also visited Neelipora village, where he inspected Ultra High-Density Apple orchard of Mohammad Aslam Rather, a progressive orchardist in the area. He interacted with the orchardist and appreciated his hard work.
Later, the Director inspected the Departmental Canning Centre, Handwara where he inspected the functioning of the centre and stressed imparting training to the youth on the preservation and value addition of fruit and vegetables on priority, in order to enable them to become self-reliant and self-employed.
The Director was accompanied by the Chief Horticulture Officer, Kupwara, the District Horticulture Officer, Kupwara, and other officers of the Department.
