category Regional, chandigarh,, tags Regional, chandigarh,, DW BUREAU Chandigarh Punjab Government performed exceptionally well at the SKOCH awards 2023 by clinching one Silver Award and 5 Semi Final positions in Horticulture sector during the award ceremony held at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi. Punjab Horticulture Minister Chetan Singh Jauramajra, while congratulating the officials of the department for bagging the Silver Award for Center of Excellence (CoE)for Vegetables (An Indo-Israeli) project located at Kartarpur, Jalandhar, said that the Centre has helped to transform the lives of farmers by significantly increasing their income. On-farm cold rooms of 3-5 metric tons were standardized here which have enabled farmers to get proper monetary returns. It has also helped to address major gaps in the value-chain. The farmers with pre-harvest technology were encouraged for crop diversification by providing income equivalent to 1 acre from 1 kanaal polyhouses. The flagship project of the Horticulture Department provides training and demonstrations to farmers and door-step delivery of disease-free planting material etc. besides containing modern post-harvest management technologies. The centre also contains state-of-the-art Hydroponics unit and a plant clinic laboratory. The CoE has provided more than 2 Crore disease-free vegetable seedlings to farmers all over Punjab. The semi finalist projects were Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) Scheme, Project PHASE, Biofertilizer Laboratory Hoshiarpur, Sericulture (Developing silk production in Punjab) and Center of Excellence for Potato-Dhogri, Jalandhar (An Indo-Dutch Project). These projects were applauded for their innovation and contribution on the ground-level to create a positive impact for all its stakeholders. Notably, the SKOCH Group is India s leading think tank dealing with socio-economic issues with a focus on inclusive growth. SKOCH Awards are being conducted on a national level since 2003 to recognize projects and institutions working on topics of national importance-marking the awardee s extraordinary achievements in contributing to the society. (editor dailyworld.in)