Report by:Mir Arif

Rafiabad: In a Joint initiative by Army and Agriculture Department, Baramulla a twelve day long workshop on Mushroom Cultivation for locals and small land holding farmers of Rafiabad commenced on 19 Oct 2022 at Panchayat Ghar, Soyan Sadnar.

 The rural face of Baramulla district still follows traditional model of agriculture for self-sustenance and have not adequately monetized their hardwork due to remote nature of terrain & unavailability of skilled guidance, the agriculture suffers from poor yield.

 In order to mitigate this problem and provide imminent relief to the people from these ailments, Rafiabad Army conducted a Mushroom Cultivation Workshop in conjunction with Agriculture Department, Baramulla.

A total of 12 locals and small land holding farmers participated during the workshop. The workshop aims to provide economic independence and social inclusion among the locals. The event started with opening address by Agriculture extension officer zone Dangiwacha Mr Firdous Ahmad.

The event was also attended by various locals of different villages and a lecture on Mushroom Cultivation procedure was conducted in detail by Mr Firdous Ahmad and Mr Hilal Ahmad officers of agriculture department.

All the attendees were briefed in detail and various steps to cultivate mushroom were explained. The attendees were taken to Mushroom Cultivation farm by Army and Agriculture officers and they were explained about nuances of mushroom cultivation and steps involving mushroom cultivation.

This initiative empowers the locals to improve their economic status and provides an opportunity to take advantage of the transforming agri landscape.

Local citizens expressed their gratitude and satisfaction for active involvement and participation of the Army in agriculture development programmes.