PAMPORE: Additional Secretary Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Government of India , Vivek Agarwal, who is on a five day visit to valley, on Friday along with Director General Horticulture J&K Ajaz Ahmad Bhat visited Centre of Excellence (CoE) established at Zawoora Khanmoh, Srinagar where he inspected profile of different varieties of fruit plants.
During the visit Director General Horticulture J&K, Aijaz Ahmad Bhat showed him different varieties of various fruit plants and briefed him about them.
The Additional Secretary Vivek Agarwal was very impressed with him and applauded his efforts.
Taking to Kashmir Reader Additional Secretary GoI said “Today I visited Centre of Excellence in Zawoora area, the root stock of every variety of fruit including apple, cherry, walnut, apricot, pear and almond is available here and in coming days a training programme has been planned for farmers,” he said, adding that he was very impressed with the performance shown by officers of horticulture department Kashmir.
“ We are working to make loan and subsidy for farmers more attractive so that targets for high density fruit plants are achieved,” he said.
He told Kashmir Reader that centre and UT can work together to take horticulture industry in Kashmir to new heights.
Additional Secretary Vivek Agarwal assured that all the possible help from government of India shall be extended to establish more such centre of excellence in public sector.
Director Agriculture Mohammad Iqbal Choudhary, Deputy Director Central, Chief Horticulture Officer Srinagar and other senior officers from the department were also present during the visit.

BILAL HABIB