Patalbagh Pampore, start identifying interventions, value additions for organic farming

PAMPORE: A Team from the ministry of commerce government of India visited different areas of Pampore including Saffron fields and organic village Patalbagh of Pampore in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
The team was led by Assistant Vice President of Invest India, Garima Nijhawan and Project Coordinator of Invest India, Harpreet Singh.
The team met the Progressive farmer, member Kissan Advisory Board Irshad Ahmad Dar from Organic village Patalbagh and collected details of Organic village.
Agriculture department team Pampore led by Agricultural Extension Officer Shaikh Shariyar accompanied the team during the visit to Organic village.
The Team from ministry of Commerce GoI led by Assistant vice President of Invest India, Garima Nijhawan and Project Coordinator of Invest India, Harpreet Singh met the progressive farmer, member of Kissan Advisory Board Irshad Ahmad Dar from Organic village Patalbagh and collected details of the Organic village.
They also visited the organic village Banagund and Pencil Factory Kakapora.
The main objective of the visit was to build sustainable business models in Kashmir, officials told Kashmir Reader.
Talking to Kashmir Reader at Patalbagh Garima Nijhawan informed that Invest India is an arm of DPIIT which helps in identifying avenues of development.
” The honourable Prime Minister released One District One Product (ODOP) mandate under which one product for one district is identified and it is in this context we are here in Patalbagh to identify the product and see what are the interventions and value additions can be used to increase price of the product,” she said.
She told Kashmir Reader that farmers in Organic village Patalbagh cultivate organic vegetables and in this context they talked to different sellers and buyers.
” The buyer want to buy more of the organic vegetables,” she said, adding that they came to see how farmers do organic farming in Banagund so that the knowledge is shared with other people.
Irshad Ahmad, a progressive farmer from Patalbagh told Kashmir Reader that they were assured by the team that their organic produce will get a better market.
” They assured us that the organic produce will be marketed at international level, which is a very big thing for us,” he said, adding that they want to turn a farmer into an entrepreneur.
Irshad expressed happiness on the visit of the team and thanked them for taking new initiatives.

BILAL HABIB