Srinagar
In a path-breaking development, the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday announced H N Agri Serve (Root2Fruit) as their official face for horticulture in Jammu and Kashmir, said company spokesman in a statement.
The spokesman of the company in a statement said that the two inked a Memorandum of Understanding under which the evolved horticulture technologies in the European nation would be extended and implemented in Jammu and Kashmir, the main apple basket of the region.
He said IICCI will join hands with HN Agri Serve and VivaiF.lliZanzi (one of Italy’s oldest and major plant nurseries having established and developing a number of orchards worldwide) to work together to include Italian products, technology, expertise and know-how within the purview of the pilot project – “Il Frutteto – The Italian Orchard in Kashmir”
“The agreement was signed at a major function at High Ground Anantnag where IICCI had a detailed interactive session with the apple growers. The event was attended by a select group of around 50 apple growers; IICCI was represented by Mr Amar Joshi, Deputy Secretary-General IICCI and Ricardo Zanzi from the Italian nursery major VivaiZanzi, Dr Khalid Mushtaq, Head of Fruit Sciences at the SKUAST, and Dr Abdul Ahad Sofi, Chief Scientist HN Agri Serve &former Director CITH, Srinagar. HN Agri Serve founder Khuram Mir was also part of the proceedings,” said the spokesman.
He said that the event also witnessed a formal opening of the high-density apple plant nursery that Root2Fruit started a few years back. It is the first nursery of its kind in the state that will produce 3, 5 and 7 feather plants and is created to reduce the per plant costs, by producing the plants locally instead of importing them from Europe. Currently, the fresh high-density plants are imported.
Besides, HN Agri Serve announced setting up of a cement pole manufacturing unit in Kashmir to produce cutting edge cement poles for high-density plantation. This unit will have high-tech equipment from a leading manufacturer, Tecnocom Spa. The end product in the form of poles will be manufactured under the guidance of world-class cement pole manufacturer Spinazze, whose HN Agri Serve is an exclusive partner in J&K, he said.
The event saw the formal launch of a digital application by HN AgriServe, named as Root2Fruit App. It can be downloaded to the mobile phones and computers and would help the growers in orchard management and better grievance redressal, the spokesman said.
He said Ricardo Zanzi who is an expert in nursery and orchard establishment gave a detailed presentation about VivaiZanzi, and said that VivaiZanzi wants to produce plants customised to Kashmir, based on its soil and climate. He said his company does not want to be a mere supplier only. He also trained the local apple growers on various aspects of the plantation of high-density apple trees, under the theme “Train the Trainers”.
The spokesman quoted Amar Joshi as having said that IICCI will work with people on the ground in Kashmir for increased outputs and quality, knowledge transfer and to push the government for farmer friendly policies. He said that under the signed MOU, the Italian experts would regularly visit Kashmir, interact with orchard owners and train them. In the long term, Joshi said, IICCI will attempt to collaborate with SKUAST and HN Agri Serve to tie-up with Italian universities for knowledge transfer and development of short term vocational courses.
