SRINAGAR: Director Agriculture Kashmir Chowdhury Mohammad Iqbal on Thursday said that the vegetable sector has a vast potential for employment generation for the educated youth of the valley.
He asked the young educated farmers to come forward and take agriculture as a full-time enterprise and become job providers, not job seekers. He assured them of full cooperation from the department in their endeavor of becoming the agri-entrepreneur.
The Director inaugurated the distribution of vegetable seedlings raised on scientific lines under a hi-tech poly house here at kitchen gardens Lalmandi Srinagar. He handed over the vegetable seedlings Knol-Khol, Tomato, Lettuce, Cucumber, broccoli, beetroot, bottle guard, squash, and Saag Khanyari, to farmers of the Srinagar district and adjacent areas.
Iqbal was appraised that during the second phase about 3-4 lakh seedlings of Knol-Khol, Tomato, Lettuce, Cucumber, broccoli, beetroot, bottle guard, squash, and Saag Khanyari have been raised under high-tech poly houses at kitchen gardens premises Lalmandi Srinagar.
He highlighted the role of vegetable cultivation in the overall development of the agriculture sector. He assured the farmers of every possible technical support from the department during the cultivation of different vegetable crops.
Chowdhury Iqbal said that the department has established hi-tech poly houses in all the districts of the Kashmir division with the aim to provide quality vegetable seedlings to the farmers of concerned districts in sufficient quantity and round the year.
The Director Agriculture said that valley-wide seedling distribution will continue in a phased manner. He said demand for vegetable seedling is increasing every year as backyard farming and kitchen garden farming is increasing which is an encouraging trend for the overall development of the agriculture sector.

KR Desk