Extension activities of Agriculture Deptt hit badly
Goldi Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 28: Though the Ministry of Home Affairs has kept Agriculture related activities under essential services and issued new guidelines for their resumption but in Jammu division a large workforce of Agriculture department is engaged by their respective district administrations to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, thus badly hampering the extension activities of department during the time of sowing, harvesting, stocking as well as providing inputs to farmers.
Reports have been pouring in from different districts of Jammu province such as Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Poonch, Reasi and others that the maximum workforce of the Agriculture department has been engaged by the district administrations in various activities like maintenance of the quarantine cum isolation centres, distribution of essential commodities and keeping the record of infected people in various districts.
The issue, regarding the engagement of the Agriculture Extension staff in the containment of COVID-19 pandemic, was raised by the Agriculture department during a meeting, organised by District administration Kathua recently in which the Director Agriculture of Jammu was also present. As the department had complained that due to the engagement of large chunk of employees in the COVID-19 containment works, the Agriculture extension activities have been badly hampered, the district administration (DC Kathua) assured that some of the Agriculture employees would be relieved soon for resuming agricultural activities, said an official while wishing anonymity.
“In hilly region as well as lower foothills of Shivalik range, sowing of maize and fodder is going on at war footing level while in the plain areas also along the International Border the harvesting of wheat crop is at its peak. During this time, usually the Agricultural Extensional Assistants (AEAs) are engaged at panchayat level, who conduct extensive visits of field and guide the farmers about introducing new varieties of seeds, the cultivation techniques, quantity and types of fertilizers used for different varieties of crops and conducts soil testing,”, said another official.
These techniques need specialisation and AEAs have been trained for such activities but this year majority of them are engaged to contain COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the extension activities are hit severely. Even as the containment of deadly virus is equally important but if sowing season is over, the AEAs would not be able to guide farmers at any level, which would also create a gap between the farmers and AEAs and also breach the trust.
An AEO posted at Bani teshil of Kathua said that some AEAs were not engaged in COVID-19 duties but in making entry passes, registration of combine harvesters and their supporting staff, establishing control room rather than farming related activities.
Chief Agriculture Officer, Reasi, Iqbal Singh said that out of total 80 employees (AEAs) nearly 46 were engaged in COVID-19 containment works, which accounted for nearly 60 percent of the total manpower. He further said that the AEAs were engaged at their respective panchayats by the district administration, where they could also do some extension activities.
However, the AEAs claimed that it was not possible to do both the works simultaneously and agriculture extension works would ultimately suffer.
In district Kathua nearly 70-80 percent employees are deputed for Coronavirus related activities whereas extension activities are suffering lot. In Poonch district only 16 employees including CAO are deputed for COVID-19 related activities, said CAO Poonch, Yonous Choudhary, adding while remaining were engaged in agricultural activities.
Director Agriculture Jammu, Inderjeet admitted that in Kathua district maximum workforce of the department has been engaged by district administration to deal with the COVID-19 situation.
“During a meeting with District Administration Kathua few days back, the question was raised before Deputy Commissioner, OP Bhagat for relieving of Agriculture employees and officers from the duty and the DC had assured to relieve some of then soon but nothing happed so far,” he said.
The Director further said in other districts sufficient number of staff was available for doing extension works. He further said it is prerogative of district administration how-much and which department’s staff would be employed for COVID-19 containment works.
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