SRINAGAR, AUGUST 18 (KNS) : The Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal today kick-started seed sowing of Onion crop at Kitchen Garden premises Lalmandi, Srinagar.

On the occasion, the Director visited different blocks of the kitchen garden and interacted with the concerned technical staff.

The concerned officers briefed the Director regarding various initiatives introduced by the Department for the optimum utilization of the different resources. It was informed that an estimated 15 lakh to 20 lakh onion seedlings would be made available to the farmers from kitchen gardens Lalmandi, Srinagar.

Speaking on the occasion, the Director said that early seeded crops will utilize available soil moisture in a better way. He said that early seeded crops avoid many insects and problems by beating the peak infestation or infection period and at the same time early seeding leads to early harvesting.

He assured the concerned officers of every possible support for the successful implementation of the kitchen gardens programme. He asked the concerned officers to ensure that the farming community gets the seedlings of different agriculture crops including vegetable crops at the right time.

Later, the Director inaugurated the distribution of compost bags at Integrated Mushroom Development Centre Srinagar (IMDC). He directed the concerned officers to put in all the efforts so that more and more educated young farmers could be attracted towards the mushroom cultivation.

He said from the last three years mushroom cultivation is adopted by many farmers but there is last scope in this sector therefore all the necessary steps should be taken to ensure that more and more farmers take this enterprise on a commercial line.(KNS)