Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 17: With vigorous campaign launched by Agriculture Department for achieving the cent-percent target of issuance of Kissan Credit Cards (KCC) in the State, Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir today said that 1.26 lakh KCCs have been issued by different banks in Jammu division up to ending October 2012.
The Minister said this while reviewing the progress of the issuance of KCCs at a meeting here this afternoon.
The meeting was attended by Director, Agriculture, Jammu, Ajay Khajuria, Director Command Area Development, Jammu, Asgar Ali, Joint Directors, Deputy Directors and Chief Agriculture Officers of Jammu province.
The meeting disclosed that out of 5.49 lakh farming families of Jammu division, 3.38 lakh KCC forms have been filled by the farmers through Revenue Department and sent to the concerned financial institutions for issuance of KC cards. Out of these, 1.26 lakh KC cards have been issued and the issuance of remaining cards is in process and hoped maximum KCCs to be issued by end of this month.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that the primary objective for issuance of KCCs is to provide hassle free credit facilities to the farmers at their doorsteps for enhancing the quality agriculture produce. He said that the present Government has taken this initiative on priority to provide the farmers easy access with their concerned banks to have easy credit facilities at the time peak farming season. He said that our target is to provide KCC to every farmer of the State.
Appreciating the efforts of the officers of the Agriculture Department, the Minister stressed upon the officers to expedite the coverage of the remaining farmers at the earliest and ensure that Kissan Credit Cards are issued to all farming families within the shortest possible time. He said that there must be much and more credit facilities to the farmers so that they are able to double their Agri- production.
While reviewing the overall performance of the Agriculture Department, the Minister stressed to hold agriculture awareness camps at village level to acquaint the farmers about the latest agri-techniques.
Referring to the involvement of educated youth in agri-business, the Minister asked the Chief Agriculture Officers to facilitate the youth with fertilizer, seed and pesticide licenses at village level which would help the department to reach out the farmers of in-accessible areas. He said this would also help in uniform and timely distribution of seeds, fertilizer and pesticide among the farmers besides generating job opportunity to jobless youth. He also stressed to involve the farmers in introduction of organic fertilizers in their farming fields.
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