Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Nabi Hanjura on Wednesday called for better synergy among the stakeholders to ensure the envisioned goal of advancement of agriculture sector with socio-economic emancipation of farmers is achieved.

The Minister was speaking at the 36th foundation day celebration of NABARD here today.

He congratulated NABARD and its role in development of agriculture sector and farmers.

While outlining the state of agriculture sector in the state he said NABARD can play very important role in uplifting the economic condition of the farmers of the state through enhancement of technology based applications, linkage with the credit and creating mass awareness about the marketing and management of their farms on entrepreneurial lines.

The Minister stressed on the collective efforts of the NABARD, Banks and the Development Departments to double the farmers’ income by 2022 as envisioned by the Prime Minister.

He said that awareness and sensitization of farmers holds key to better implementation of the welfare schemes and called upon the Agriculture department and concerned agencies to reach out to the farmers by organizing regular awareness programmes. He stressed that with the changing times the focus should be on integrated and organic farming to fetch good economic returns.

The Minister said that works are at pace on the implementation of different projects taken up under NABRAD funding which include the development of seed multiplication farm and Potato seed multiplication farm at Bakore, Gool and Sanasar, respectively.  He said against Rs 10.20 crore project cost sanctioned under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund(RIDF) by NABRAD, state has expended Rs 5.54 crore till June 2017.   

He said climate resilient aggregation project in block Bhalwal in Jammu and Surisyar block in Budgam at a project cost of Rs.22.5 lakh. He said that the ambit of this project would be extended to the other parts of the state to realize the objective of enhanced resilience of agriculture crops, livestock and fisheries through development and application of improved production and management technologies.

While listing the steps taken by the government to facilitate farmers, he said that better marketing and allied facilities are being provided to them through intervention schemes .

He said that implementation of the schemes like Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana  (PMFBY), National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC),  Kissan Credit Cards (KCC) Scheme and focus on integrated farming will make the farming sector more lucrative. 

He said that Jammu and Kashmir is the only state working on the three year project report presented to Union Minister for Agriculture. 

 Banking Ombudsman, S C Sharma,  GM, RBI, Shri P Shimrah,   GM, RBI, Shri Satyanarayana,   Senior Bankers, Sh K. S. Sambyal, Joint Director of Agriculture (Inputs), Chief General Manager, NABARD, J&K RO, Shri Vijay Kumar , SLBC Convenor, State Govt. officials of Agriculture & Horticulture Departments, other bank officials, representative form NGOs and FPOs were present on the occasion.

Guest