Jammu and Kashmir’s agriculture sector moving towards modernization and growth
Agricultural transformation is the process that leads to increased farm productivity, making farming commercially viable and strengthening interlinkages with other sectors of the economy. For agricultural transformation, there are key areas that require focus. Farmer’s access to financial resources is one of the major challenges that India faces. Even though there has been an increase in the sales of tractors all across India, giving rise to mechanization in the sector, it is also important to make mechanized equipment accessible to all farmers, even farmers with small and scattered land holdings. Mechanization of the agriculture sector is imperative to increase the productivity of the farmers, but it should also occur in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Mechanization in the agricultural sector consists of using machinery, tools, and equipment to reduce post-harvest losses, get good quality products, and increase the value of the farm product. It helps in increasing the economic benefits for the farmers, who can efficiently use their manpower, reduce input costs, increase the value of output, adopt diversification of crops, and in turn, improve their welfare.
The focus of mechanization in agriculture is to augment the farmer by increasing their per-hectare productivity and replacing the efforts of animal or manual labor with mechanical power. Mechanization can take place in two ways; ‘partially’ when machines only replace a part of the farming activity or ‘completely’ when machinery replaces animals and human labor entirely. In India, there are inter-regional differences in the level of mechanization. The Northern-Indian states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana experience a high level of mechanization due to the presence of highly fertile lands and state-specific policies. In the southern and eastern states of India, the level of mechanization is low due to the hilly topography and high cost of transportation.
The village economy has changed from subsistence to cash economy. Farmers now cultivate commercial crops like sugarcane & cotton and send them to the outside market. They produce more by adopting new agricultural innovations. The Govt’s involvement is more in the village agricultural economy through its development. Programmes & personnel. The village cooperatives try to assist the farmers by supplying the necessary agricultural inputs. There is not much change in the land ownership pattern in spite of passing land legislation. The tenant’s condition has not improved much, and the agricultural laborers also continue to live in poverty in spite of the increased agricultural production. Since agricultural production is a capitalistic economy & market-oriented, the farming community never gets the benefit of more production. On the other hand, industrialists and traders who control national politics take away the profit of agricultural yield. Still, the farmer is faced with forced sales due to his immediate need for investment.
Jammu and Kashmir Scenario
Jammu and Kashmir’s economy is predominantly agriculture-dependent, and nearly 70% of the population is directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural and allied activities.
The J&K government works on a vision on a daily basis to look beyond subsistence agriculture by leveraging special agro-climatic conditions of the Union Territory for securing high returns to the farmers from transformed and modern sustainable and inclusive agriculture interventions. Also, with the introduction of innovative and globally validated farm technologies, the raising of the requisite state-of-the-art infrastructure, and the creation of an enabling ecosystem, the agriculture sector is being developed on modern lines across the length and breadth of J&K.
The mission of the J&K Administration is to secure a complete transformation in the lives and outlook of the farmers of the UT from subsistence to modern, vibrant, and high-return agriculture by the end of the year 2023. The objective of the government is also to dispel the image of agriculture as a means of sustenance and to promote in a big way agripreneurship as a means of high return and respectable employment. They are also making maximum effort to aggregate Farmers’ Interest Groups (FIGs), particularly youth and women, and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in product-specific clusters to meet the objectives of Atamnirbhar Bharat and make the most of funding and opportunities available under various CSS for securing the welfare of farmers of the Union Territory.
In recent years, mechanization of the farming sector is an important step in transforming the agriculture sector, which will help farmers to produce more. As a part of agricultural mechanization support to the farmers for broader economic transformation, the Lieutenant Governor of J&K handed over sanction letters for 100 tractors to the farmers and 1035 threshers for panchayats. The government is also setting up Custom Hiring centers and Farm Machinery Banks in different parts of the union territory. As many as 151 custom hiring centers and 122 farm machinery banks have been started so far.
The agriculture and the horticulture sectors are key drivers of J&K’s economic growth and efficient use of seed technologies, high-density plantation, nutrient management, and widespread adoption of integrated dairy farming schemes to make Jammu-Kashmir agriculture powerhouse. Facilities have been provided like cold storage, market linkages and food-processing units, besides developing a strong framework for farmer industry connect and generating employment opportunities for rural youth to bridge the rural-urban divide.
Moreover, in recent months, Direct financial assistance has been provided to 11.7 lakh farmers through the Kisan Credit Card and incentives worth Rs. 1,706 crore have been disbursed to more than a million beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN scheme. Extending Technology benefits to farmers, the government distributed Paddy/Maize threshers to 3000 Panchayats which will be distributed to all Panchayats soon. Also, 1.29 lakh soil samples being tested during the current year, 56,426 soil health cards (SHCs) have been distributed besides more than 1 lakh quintals of quality seed have also been distributed among farmers to amplify the production and make them economically sustainable. The government has also launched several other remarkable initiatives to develop the agricultural sector of J&K.
Under the National Saffron Mission, irrigation infrastructure inclusive of a sprinkler system has been started, which is connected to 126 deep production wells. As a result of this, around 2578.75 hectares of land stands rejuvenated to date. The implementation of the Mission has also ensured a substantial increase in crop yields from 1.88 kg/Ha to 4.5 kg/Ha, which in turn has ultimately doubled the income of saffron growers. The government has also started several marketing initiatives to make the agricultural sector of J&K more viable. G.I. tagging for Saffron and Guchi (Wild Mushroom) of Doda has given remarkable strides to the acclaimed Saffron of Kashmir in the international market as well as to the Guchi Mushroom. Moreover, the organic Certification of Basmati Rice of R.S. Pura has also increased the marketing value of the rice. Similarly, other remarkable achievements like Lal Mirch harvested on 1182 Ha, Sweet Corn harvested on 160 Ha(6105 Qtl), Exotic vegetables harvested over 125 Ha, and others have generated massive returns for the farmers.
In a bid to give a major boost to the agriculture sector in Jammu and Kashmir, the UT government signed a pact with New Zealand for the transformation of the sheep farming sector in the Union Territory. The overarching objective of the pact is to improve farmer’s remuneration, transfer of technology in research and development as well as marketing and value addition of sheep products of Jammu-Kashmir. Online registration certification has also started in Jammu and Kashmir to facilitate registration and ensure growth in organic farming. For the first time in history, 2000 trucks of vegetables have been exported from Jammu and Kashmir to other parts of the country. Jammu and Kashmir have achieved the top position in the entire country with a yield of 70 quintals per hectare of paddy.
Moreover, 60,000 hectares of basmati agriculture land is being converted into high-productivity land. In the last year, a record 5400 metric tonnes of mushroom and 22,182 quintals of honey have been produced. Kisan Credit Cards have been made available to more than 11 lakh 60 thousand farmers. To give more boost to the Agriculture sector here, the Agriculture department has also decided to collaborate with Amazon Fresh, which has evinced keen interest in the Fruit & Vegetable assortment available in Jammu with the motive of expanding the network in North India. Jammu is also going to have a collection/procurement center next year. To provide a market for Kashmiri Saffron, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) has decided that it will sell Kashmiri Saffron at all its outlets across the country, thereby providing another option to the farmers to sell their produce at attractive prices.
Apart from saffron, Jammu and Kashmir is number one in the whole country in the production of apples, walnuts, and almonds and the upcoming industries in the food processing sector will help farmers’ income to grow manifold in the coming days. As the agriculture sector is the driving force of J&K’s economy, the reforms brought by the J&K government in recent months for the development and progression of the agriculture sector are yielding encouraging results. Though the government has taken impressive measures for the agriculture sector’s emancipation, more is needed to be done in a hassle-free manner. Strict implementation of the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act of 1976 provisions should be followed in letter and spirit in order to save agricultural land for commercial purposes.
The writer teaches Sociology at Government Higher Secondary School Gadole, Kokernag. He can be reached at za*********@***il.com