SrinagarAlmost a century ago, Sir Walter Lawrence, then European settlement commissioner wrote Kashmir is the country of fruits, and perhaps no country has greater facilities for horticulture, as indigenous apple, pear, vine, mulberry, walnut, hazel, peach, apricot, raspberry, gooseberry, currant, and strawberry can be obtained without difficulty in most parts of the valley. To prove it right even today, Government has initiated several steps for tapping the potential of horticulture industry of the State by initiating innovative steps on modern scientific lines to improve plant health and soil health besides, conducting live demonstration awareness camps to collect soil samples from orchards across the State.
Jammu & Kashmir State is considered as the home for worlds famous varieties of fruits, and dry fruits. Horticulture is one of the most dominant sectors and backbone of the States economy as the industry is the important source of GDP on account of the fact that against the production of 1.83 MTs in 1972-73 the production has risen to the level of 24.94 LMTs which raised the turnover of Rs. 6000.00 crore approximately during 2015-16.
It provides direct and indirect employment to about 23 lakh people and has the potential for further growth. Keeping in view potential of horticulture in driving states economy, government has declared horticulture a thrust area and is taking number of steps to boost it.
He was informed that in last three years 4182 soil samples have been analyzed here which includes Anantnag: 349, Budgam:1490, Baramulla: 307, Kulgam: 345, Kupwara: 349, Pulwama: 384, Shopian: 292 and Srinagar: 373.
The Minister was further informed that the collection of soil samples have raised from 900 to 1500 annually in last three years and in the year 2016-17 the Lab has analyzed 2730 soil samples collected from 1950 beneficiaries from various district of Kashmir Division.
He was informed that with advancement in technology the Lab analyze ten parameters to check out soil and plant health which include PH, EC, Organic Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc, Iron, Manganese and Copper and readings are uploaded on Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Government of India web portal where from farmers can directly download Soil Health Card.
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