Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 22: Describing agriculture as the bright spot in State’s economy, Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, today fixed achievable targets for a quick turnaround, aimed at making J&K self-sufficient in agriculture production.
As a testament to the fertility of the land for certain kind of crops, she suggested popularizing the concept of model villages for basmati, mushkbudgi, apple, saffron and walnut to set the agriculture sector rolling on the path of recovery. “Our land is fertile and we have enough water resources. I wonder why our production is not picking up,” she questioned, while expressing concern over using only the third of the state’s potential in agriculture sector.
The Chief Minister made these remarks while reviewing the functioning of the Agriculture Production Department (APD), at the Civil Secretariat, here today.
Minister for Agriculture Production, Ghulam Nabi Lone, Chief Secretary, B. R. Sharma, Financial Commissioner, Planning & Development, B. B. Vyas, Principal Secretary, APD, Sandeep Nayak, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Naveen Chaudhary and Secretary, Horticulture Department, M. H. Malik, besides Directors of Agriculture and Sericulture Departments attended the meeting.
The Chief Minister called for fundamental change in the working of the department so that shortage of food-grains is met by becoming self-sufficient in agriculture production. She asked the officers in the department not to confine themselves to routine administrative work, mostly restricting themselves to distribution of seeds and fertilizers only and not ignore the more important component of extension work and demonstration of technology to the farmers. “Unless the technology travels from laboratory to farms, there is very little we can do to enhance crop output,” she stated.
As farming is a low-margin, labour-intensive activity, the Chief Minister reminded the officers of their responsibility to produce results so that we shrug off the tag of having ‘untapped agriculture potential’.
Mehbooba Mufti noted with concern though the inability to extract tangible benefits out of several Government schemes like the National Saffron Mission, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, setting up of Farm Information Advisory Centre and Online National Agricultural Marketing Portal.
To aggressively market J&K’s potential in high-quality crops, the Chief Minister tasked the Agriculture Department to set up model villages for Basmati at R. S. Pura and Mushkbudgi at Sagam, near Kokernag. She said she will personally monitor the progress of the model villages so that it has a cascading effect on other high-yielding crops and fruits in the State.
Similarly, she passed directions to set up two model villages for saffron at Samboora, in Pulwama and Kishtwar, in Jammu division, respectively.
In order to rejuvenate the saffron cultivation, the Chief Minister set a deadline of six weeks for the Agriculture Department to install sprinkler irrigation system in the saffron fields to boost production.
Mehbooba Mufti also fixed a timeline of four months to make the Spice Park at Dussoo, Pampore, functional.
Earlier, Planning Commissioner briefed the Chief Minister about the allocation of Rs.500 crore made for the agriculture sector under the Prime Minister’s Development Package. To utilize this money, he said the department will be advised to finalize broad contours under various heads.
The Agriculture Secretary informed the Chief Minister that the devolution to agriculture sector under 14th Finance Commission Award has not been very encouraging. He highlighted the need for a ‘special project’ for funding to propel the activities of the department, which suffered damages to the tune of Rs.4400 crore in the colossal floods of 2014.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
