Agriculture sector plays pivotal role in changing our economy: Chief Secy

Jammu, Dec 7: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo Thursday had a detailed review of the schemes under implementation here to revamp all the sectors of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries in the UT.
Besides the Principal Secretary, APD the meeting was attended by Mission Director, Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP); Secretary in Agriculture; HoDs of allied departments and other concerned officers.
Speaking in this meeting, the Chief Secretary observed that the Agriculture sector plays a pivotal role in changing our economy for better as it has not yet been harnessed optimally as per our innate potential. He made out that there are number of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) along with HADP currently under implementation in the UT that can be game changers in this direction, if implemented successfully here.
He maintained that the main focus areas for the Department in agriculture sector should be on provisioning of quality agricultural inputs like seeds, rootstock, fertilizers, equipments bolstered with agri extension for bringing substantial improvement in the productivity of our arable lands.
The Chief Secretary further made out that in order to enhance the capacity of our farmers, it is imperative to give them hands-on training about the use of new techniques and technology. He advised the Department to designate public/private farms of Agriculture, Poultry, Dairy, Sheep or Honey in each block here and nominate a trainer for each of them to bring knowledge of labs into practice in the field. He asked for targeting at least 2 lakh farmers for imparting such a training in next 5 years period.
Dulloo further shared that an extensive baseline survey of about 20000-25000 farmers from different areas should be carried out to know about their concerns, expectations, priorities, income, awareness in addition to taking in consideration the fertility, profile, cropping pattern, weather and use of inputs and machinery by the farmers.
He expressed that this survey done under the University experts should be transformed into a well crafted research document which would act as a book to reckon upon for guiding us in better implementation of our schemes here. He asked for having a symbiotic relationship between our agricultural universities and departments for taking advantage of resources and infrastructure available with them to obtain desired outcomes in revolutionizing the agricultural sector in the UT.
As far as bringing further ease to the farmers of J&K is concerned, the Chief Secretary asked for having simplified procedures for availing different government sponsored benefits by them. He told them to provide them assistance in preparation of quality DPRs and approvals from the credit lending institutions to seek timely financial help for establishment of different units. He further directed for providing Smart Cards to the farmers availing credit facilities from financial institutions as per the RBI guidelines.
He asked for making it sure to extend the crop insurance to the farmers to secure them from any losses happening due to calamities. He even told them to disseminate the literature and display other Audio-visual content to the youth to depict the success stories and profits made possible in agriculture. He asked for making this sector lucrative for them to get them attracted towards it.
Dulloo also stressed on having intense follow-up of all the key outcomes of each scheme under implementation here. He asked for making strenuous efforts to obtain GI tagging of all the products in pipeline besides adding more to the list.
He asked for optimum exploitation of the sectors like dairy development, food processing, high density farming and value addition of the produce as these have greater potential and higher returns to offer. He even called for having export plans for the niche crops here and adding more items like Walnut, Kiwi to the e-NAM in addition to the apple already there.
In his presentation the Principal Secretary, APD, Shailendra Kumar informed about the progress made in each scheme under implementation here. He gave overview of expenditure made under Capex, CSS and HADP till date. He even apprised about the future plans of the Department to make agriculture sector a thriving enterprise here in the UT.
He gave out that the Department is aiming at establishing Milk processing unit in every district of J&K. He even revealed that the total business on e-NAM jumped to over Rs 300 Cr from mere Rs 30 Cr in the past. He made out that the progress in the implementation of HADP would fairly improve from next year as the process of grounding and capacity building has largely been accomplished in the first year of its implementation in J&K.