Director Agriculture Production and Farmer Welfare, Jammu, K. K. Sharma, along with a team of officers, conducted an extensive tour of Samba and Kathua district and took stock of the implementation of various farmer welfare schemes and field activities being undertaken by the Department of Agriculture.
The Director Agriculture visited the SM Farm, Balode where he inspected the Pasteurized Mushroom Compost Making Unit under Mushroom Corridor Project and other farm activities undertaken on the farm spread over 56 Kanal.
He visited the Exotic Vegetable Demonstration at Rakh Dhayansar and stressed upon production of high value vegetables under protected conditions to get round the year production for high returns. He also inspected the Mushroom Production Units (2800 Bags) of Pushpinder Singh of Kartholi and instructed the staff to organize mushroom growers into Farmers Producer Organization (FPO) that will ultimately help in scaling up the level of production and creating better marketing linkages.
Earlier, the Director Agriculture chaired a meeting of the Staff at the Sub Divisional Agriculture Office, Samba and received feedback on the status of various Farmers Welfare Schemes including social sector schemes like PM-KISAN, PM- KMY, PM-FBY, KCC etc.
The CAO Samba, Sanjay Verma, Dy. Project Director ATAMA, Arun Makhnotra, Assistant Agriculture Chemist, Pradeep Shrama, SDAO Samba, Naresh Raina, Farm Manager, Balode, Vijay Choudhary besides SMSs, AEOs and Field Functionaries were present on the occasion.
During the visit to Kathua district, the Director Agriculture inspected  different Mushroom Units developed under mushroom cluster, Jandi and expressed satisfaction over production and income status of mushroom cultivation.
It was informed that these mushroom units have been set up under Women Self Help Group and run by women entrepreneurs including Shakti Devi, Kamla Devi, Neelam Rani & Mina Devi.
On the way, he also inspected the field condition of Haldi (Turmeric) crops under the Spices Development Programme and stressed on the value addition of Spices by setting up units under the PM-Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme. Those who accompanied the Director included CAO Kathua, Sanjeev Rai Gupta, District officers, SDAO, Dayalachak, Ashwani Sharma besides other field functionaries.
