हिंदी
Amritsar 10 Sept 2021
To update with the ground reality, a series of meetings with the farmers have been started by the Director Horticulture Punjab, Sh. Gulab Singh Gill with the farmers of Punjab State. A meeting with the farmers of district Amritsar was held at Pear Estate Verka. Many progressive farmers of different horticulture crops have participated in this meeting. Firstly, Director Horticulture welcomed all the participants and apprised them the purpose of meeting. He further said that the Department of Horticulture is committed to bring the diversification in view of fastly decreasing ground water table in the state. 
He said that being less water guzzling crops horticulture crops are better alternative of traditional crops for diversification. After that, the farmers raised their issues one by one. Subsidy required for fencing of orchards and farms to avoid the damage of stray animals and for replacement of polysheet, shade net, drip irrigation after 5 years of establishment of unit are major demands of the farmers. They also demanded to revive the departmental scheme of supplying plastic crates and agrochemicals to the farmers so that they can get quality crates and agrochemicals on nominal prices. Pear growers requested for financial assistance for transportation charges& packaging material of pear. To get rid from the higher electricity bills, farmers requested that similar for agriculture crops their commercial electricity connection needs to be converted to A.P. connection for mushroom units and poly house units which can boost the diversification further. After listening the issues of the farmers, Director Horticulture assured that the issues in purview of the Department shall be addressed at the earliest whereas, the issues beyond the purview of the Department shall be sent to the Punjab Govt. for consideration and their suitable solutions. He appealed the farmers for self marketing, group marketing and marketing by making FPOs so that they can get more profit of their produce. He urged the farmers to produce safe to eat fruits and vegetables by using the fertilizers and pesticides judiciously. On this day, Director Horticulture also visited the Govt. Garden and Nursery, Attari, and issued necessary instructions to produce a greater number of quality fruit plants. On the occasion, Sh. Harbhajan Singh, Deputy Director Horticulture, Sh. Gurinder Singh Dhanjal, Sh. Jaspal Singh Dhillon Assistant Director Horticulture, Horticulture Development Officers and progressive farmers Sh Makhtool Singh, Major Manmohan Singh, Rajbir Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Angrej Singh, were present.
