SRINAGAR : Principal Secretary, Horticulture and Agriculture Departments, Navin Kumar Choudhary, today chaired a meeting to review the Budget estimates under CAPEX and Revenue components for the year 2021-22 of Horticulture Department at Civil Secretariat here.
Director, Horticulture Kashmir, Ajaz Ahmad Bhat; Managing Director, Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (JKHPMC), Shafat Sultan and other concerned officers were present in the meeting whileas Director, Horticulture Department Jammu, Ram Sevak; Director, Horticulture, Planning and Marketing (J&K), Imam Din and other senior officers of departments attended the meeting through video conferencing.
The meeting discussed Revenue and CAPEX components for the financial year 2021-22 besides revised estimates of 2020-22 were also discussed.
Navin Choudhary discussed activity wise capital expenditure of horticulture sector in Jammu and Kashmir. He laid stress on realization of targets and spending the resources strictly under the budgetary provisions.
Principal Secretary exhorted upon the officers to put special focus on formulation of development oriented schemes for farming community under CAPEX budget and other Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS).
Reviewing the overall progress of Horticulture Department, the Principal Secretary asked the directors of both divisions to develop existing infrastructure at the plant nurseries so that ample samplings can be produced for increasing the fruit cultivation across Jammu and Kashmir.
He also laid stress on developing high density nurseries and providing advanced technologies to the farmers so that they can adopt these concepts for enhancing the production.
Navin Choudhary directed the concerned officials to provide all possible support to the entrepreneurs who are establishing private nurseries. He asked both the directors to propose a scheme for development of plant nurseries in private sector.
He called upon the concerned officers to evolve farmer friendly schemes, new concepts and innovations by adopting multi-cropping system in the potential areas to enhance production and productivity in the UT of J&K.
The Principal Secretary asked for promotion of Horticulture cultivation in every district with focus on far flung areas by adopting integrated farming and Cluster approach through Panchayat representatives’ involvement. He called for making optimum use of available resources and formulation of innovative projects to help boost the rural economy.
Highlighting the need for developing food processing units across J&K, Navin Choudhary directed Managing Director JKHPMC to explore all possibilities for establishing Tetra Pack Units, Walnut Processing Plant, Packaging material units and others in J&K.
