Shopian, March 24: The Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal today inaugurated atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) at District Soil Testing Laboratory, here.
Speaking on the occasion, the Director said that the installation will provide state of the art soil testing laboratories to the farmers of the concerned district and adjoining areas. He said that the analysis of soil is a critically important branch of environmental monitoring and the list of harmful chemicals is growing therefore a full spectrum of analytical technologies with the most accurate and sensitive analysis is needed.
Iqbal said that the introduction of this latest facility at district soil testing laboratory will hugely benefit farmers/Agri-entrepreneurs of the district.
Meanwhile, the Director visited the hi-tech poly house Shopian and inaugurated the distribution of vegetable seedling among the farmers. He appreciated the Chief Agriculture Officer Shopian and his team for adopting some latest interventions during the preparation of seedling under controlled conditions for the farming community.
He marked the importance of Shopian district vis-à-vis vegetables production and said that the vegetables produced in this district also caters to the demands of neighboring districts of Rajouri and Poonch therefore department is working vigorously to promote vegetable cultivation in this district so that the farmers by sending their vegetables to the neighboring districts of Rajouri and Poonch could fetch more returns for their produce.
The Director said that from last year we have been sending the organic vegetable seedling to the Rajouri and Poonch district from Shopian and efforts are on to strengthen this process so that socio economic conditions of the farming community could be improved.
Earlier, Chief Agriculture Officer Shopian Farooq Ahmad Reshi gave a detailed presentation of the progress on the implementation of various programmes in the district. He also informed the Director regarding various innovative interventions taken up by the department in the district.
Director Agriculture also visited some infrastructure projects in the district and asked the concerned officers to complete the finishing work within the stipulated time frame so that the farmers could be benefited.
Later, the Director visited the vast areas of land under the cultivation of oilseeds (mustard) brought under national mission on edible oils.
Chief Agriculture Officer Shopian, Assistant Soil Chemist STL Shopian, Sub Divisional Agriculture Officer Shopian, Law Enforcement Inspector Shopian and other officers of the district were also present on the occasion.
