Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IICCI) and HN Agri Serve (Root2Fruit) on Friday signed an MoU for the transfer of horticulture technology from European nations to Jammu and Kashmir.
According to a statement, IICCI will join hands with HN AgriServe and VivaiF.lliZanzi, one of Italy’s oldest and major plant nurserieshaving established and developing a number of orchards worldwide, to worktogether to include Italian products, technology, expertise and know-how withinthe purview of the pilot project – “Il Frutteto – The Italian Orchard inKashmir”
The agreement was signed at a major function at High GroundAnantnag where IICCI had a detailed interactive session with the apple growers.The event was attended by around 50 apple growers; IICCI was represented byAmar Joshi, Deputy Secretary General IICCI and Ricardo Zanzi from the Italiannursery major VivaiZanzi, Khalid Mushtaq, Head of Fruit Sciences at the SKUAST,and Abdul Ahad Sofi, chief scientist HN Agri Serve and former director CITH,Srinagar. HN Agri Serve founder Khuram Mir was also part of the proceedings.
The event also witnessed a formal opening of thehigh-density apple plant nursery that Root2Fruit started a few years back. Itis the first nursery of its kind in the state that will produce 3, 5 and 7feather plants and is created to reduce the per plant costs, by producing theplants locally instead of importing them from Europe, the statement read.Currently, the fresh high-density plants are imported.
Besides, HN Agri Serve announced setting up of a cement polemanufacturing unit in Kashmir to produce cutting edge cement poles forhigh-density plantation. This unit will have high-tech equipment from a leadingmanufacturer, Tecnocom Spa. The end product in the form of poles will bemanufactured under the guidance of world-class cement pole manufacturerSpinazze, whose HN Agri Serve is an exclusive partner in J&K.
The event saw the formal launch of a digital application byHN AgriServe, named as Root2Fruit App. It can be downloaded to the mobilephones and computers and would help the growers in orchard management andbetter grievance redressal.
Ricardo Zanzi who is an expert in nursery and orchardestablishment gave a detailed presentation about VivaiZanzi, and said thatVivaiZanzi wants to produce plants customised to Kashmir, based on its soil andclimate. He said his company does not want to be a mere supplier only. He also trainedthe local apple growers on various aspects of the plantation of high-densityapple trees, under the theme “Train the Trainers”.
Amar Joshi said that IICCI will work with people on theground in Kashmir for increased outputs and quality, knowledge transfer and topush the government for farmer friendly policies. He said that under the signedMOU, the Italian experts would regularly visit Kashmir, interact with orchardowners and train them. In the long term, Joshi said, IICCI will attempt tocollaborate with SKUAST and HN Agri Serve to tie-up with Italian universitiesfor knowledge transfer and development of short term vocational courses.