The Dutch government today assured Jammu & Kashmir government of full cooperation for uplifting agriculture and allied sectors to boost the state's economy.
During a meeting with state agriculture minister Ghulam Hassan Mir in New Delhi today, Netherlands'a deputy ambassador to India Jeroen Roodenburg assured Jammu & Kashmir of providing technical support for boosting agriculture sector, an official spokesperson said.
"The government of Netherlands is ready to forward technology, farm machinery and elite planting material for agriculture, horticulture, floriculture and dairy farming to Jammu & Kashmir," the spokesperson quoted Roodenburg as saying.
The minister was invited by Netherlands government to discuss various areas of agricultural concern.
In this connection, the agriculture counsellor of Netherlands Henk van Duijn will be visiting Kashmir soon, the spokesperson said.
During the meeting, Mir said previously tourism was thought to be the only thrust area for the state economy, but agriculture is now being given due focus as it also has tremendous potential for employment generation.
He said the similarities in climate between European and Jammu & Kashmir makes it possible to grow all types of high value crops at very low cost.
In order to improve the quality and increase the production of the saffron, government has launched Saffron Mission in the state under which quality seeds are being provided to the farmers and the marketing shall be done through the Spice Board of India, Mir said.
The spokesperson said the agriculture counsellor to the Netherlands government assured that sufficient support for the production of quality planting material of saffron shall be made available by the Dutch experts.
In order to fulfil the country's demand of flowering bulbs, the department of agriculture is going to start a bulb propagation unit at Model Floriculture Centre Ganderbal district of the valley and the planting material would be imported from Holland.
