JAMMU: Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture Production and Farmers’ Welfare, Navin Kumar Choudhary, today held a meeting regarding farm mechanization and preparation for Kharif season.
Emphasizing cultivation of spices and medicinal plants in the Union Territory, Principal Secretary said that these have vast potential to overhaul agriculture and horticulture sectors thus boosting farmer’s income. ‘Officers need to work with a vision to ensure such developments take place’, he asserted.
Speaking to the district officers, Navin K Choudhary suggested cultivation of olives in Ramban and turmeric in Kathua-Samba region in view of area potential. He stressed that people be encouraged to cultivate organic crops only.
Similarly, cultivation of chillies was also suggested in certain districts of Kashmir. He said that businessmen are ready to procure large quantity of the produce. He also suggested that officers in the department should plan their budget and finances keeping in mind the seasonal nature of crops to ensure uninterrupted flow of funds.
Principal Secretary directed the officers to expedite delivery of benefits of departmental schemes to the public and spend the allocated funds efficiently.
Principal Secretary exhorted upon the Directors, Joint Directors and district officers to ‘Work out well laid goals, make collective plans for cluster of panchayats and work in coordination with other departments for benefit of farmers’.
Director Agriculture Jammu, Inder Jeet; Joint Director Agriculture Jammu, KK Sharma; Joint Director Horticulture (P&M), Digvijay Gupta and Deputy Director Horticulture Jammu, Shafiqa Khalid among other district officers were present in the meeting while Director Agriculture Kashmir, Mohammad Iqbal Choudhary and Director Horticulture Kashmir, Ajaz Ahmad Bhat besides district officers from Kashmir participated through video conference mode.
