Ganderbal: To ensure active participation of mass media in transferring latest technology from lab to land, a day long Scientist-Press meet was held at KVK-Ganderbal in which journalists of various media organizations participated.
The programme was arranged to officially unveil the Horti-Poultry Model of backyard poultry farming, a new initiative introduced at KVK-Ganderbal, SKUAST-K.
“Horti-Poultry is a model that can raise income of farmers to more than double,” Dr. Parvaiz Ahmed Reshi, Subject Matter Specialist (Animal Science), KVK-Ganderbal said while addressing a gathering of Scientists and journalists.
“The model will ensure organic fertilization, deweeding, hoeing and disease management of the orchards besides there will be optimization of resource management, income supplementation, food security and women empowerment,” Reshi added.
Reshi further said that in view of major portion of the state land being under fruit crops, the model if applied in the fields will ensure tremendous increase in backyard poultry production.
“It will also decrease our dependence on poultry imports from outside the state and will be a first practical step towards organic agriculture and organic poultry production.”
Dr Azmat Alam Khan, Senior Scientist and incharge Centre for Research on Poultry on the occasion outlined the importance of applying the concept in fields and gave detailed information on the scientific technique of backyard poultry production.
“Horti-Poultry concept if popularized at a larger scale could very much achieve self-sufficiency in poultry considering a large area of land being under horticulture in the state,” Khan added.
Later, Dr Javid Ahmad Bhat, Programme Coordinator and Head KVK-Ganderbal spoke on the action plan of KVK-Ganderbal to implement the concept of Horti-Poultry in fields.
“Press is the only source through which we can reach out to masses as such frequent interactions with media are essential,” Bhat said.
