Director Agriculture visits Hailstorm affected areas of Baramulla, Kupwara 

All mitigation initiatives shall be taken to minimise the losses to the affected farmers: Chowdhury Iqbal

SRINAGAR, May 26: The Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal today visited hailstorm affected areas of Baramulla and Kupwara districts of north Kashmir.

The hailstorm, gusty winds and heavy rains damaged crops across the several parts of north Kashmir’s Baramulla and Kupwara districts.

Director Agriculture along with Joint Director agriculture inputs Kashmir, Mohammed Younis Choudhary; Chief Agriculture officer Baramulla, Yadwinder Singh; Chief Technical Officer DAK, Sheikh Imran and some senior officers of the department made an extensive visit to the affected areas where damage was noticed to the agricultural crops.

Director Agriculture directed the monitoring teams to make on spot assessment of the damage caused to the vegetable crops, paddy nurseries and mustard crop by the recent hailstorm in specific areas like Ladoo, Rafiabad of Baramulla and Ladoo, Zirhama areas of Kupwara district.

A number of delegations of farmers also met the Director Agriculture   and reported the damage to vegetables, mustard and other crops.

Talking to the farmers, the Director Agriculture said that the department is committed to the economic security of the farming community. He assured the affected farmers that all the necessary steps would be taken to mitigate the damage caused by the hailstorm and gusty winds to the agriculture crops.

Instructions were issued by the Director Agriculture to field officers to immediately make a detailed assessment of the losses and the concerned CAOs have been advised to furnish the crop wise and area wise damage reports within a week’s time so that the report could be submitted to the concerned authorities.