There are several institutions in the country that are effective for agricultural development. In such a scenario, a look should be directed towards The Horticultural Society of India which is constantly trying to double the income from agriculture. A program was organized in IARI, New Delhi, to commemorate the completion of 75 years of the Horticultural Society of India. During this program, the Secretary of Agriculture and Farmers SK Pattanayak, Policy Commission Member Ramesh Chand were present. Scientists doing various research work in the direction of horticulture farming were honored.
The Chairman of the Horticultural Committee, Dr. K. L. Chadha, discussed the work done by the committee for the development of horticulture farming. While addressing the program, Agriculture Secretary SK Pattanayak said that the development of horticulture farming has to be encouraged for the development of the country. He named gardening cultivation as the younger brother of agriculture. Higher income from agriculture is not possible without horticulture. Farmers should cultivate by selecting crops that produce more income.
Meanwhile, the gross production of horticulture farming has increased significantly by 300 million tonnes. Also, Pattanayak suggested to cultivate fruit using tissue culture method. Farmers have been encouraged to grow plants containing medicinal properties.
At the same time, the policy commission member Ramesh Chand asked the farmers to grow various crops of high quality. Emphasis is given to the farmers for easy access of market for sale of the product. He said that there should be more prevalence of horticulture farming in areas where there is more availability of irrigation water.
Meanwhile, Late Time Achievement Award was given to Dr. Pritam Kalia for doing commendable work in the direction of vegetable production in the country. Pritam Kalia was awarded Ph.D. degree from Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University and later on he was appointed as Professor. After which in IARI-2002, In the vegetable production department in Delhi, he was appointed as Principal Scientific Officer. Here he was made the head of the department in 2010. He did research on 28 varieties of vegetable in 34 years of service. Dr. Kalia has also been awarded with ICRA-Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, Dr. Kirti Singh Award and Himachal Gaurav Puraskar. In this episode Dr. R.K. Pathak was also given the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Apart from this, Dr. Vijayaakumari Narukula, Professor RK Pathak, Dr. MS Dhaliwal and Dr. Deshbir Singh were also rewarded for doing various research work. Two young scientists Dr. Jograj Singh and Dr. Shivlal were also honored.
