JAMMU: Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Navin Kumar Choudhary, today chaired a meeting with representatives of BSE-e Agricultural Market (BeAM) Limited and Policy Advocacy Research Centre (PARC) Mumbai to discuss operationalization of BSE-e Agricultural Market platform for benefit of farmers engaged in agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting was attended by Special Secretary Agriculture, Pankaj Magotra; Director Agriculture Jammu, KK Sharma; Director Horticulture Jammu, Ram Sevak; Director Horticulture P&M, Managing Director JK Agro Industries Development while as Director Agriculture Kashmir Choudhary Mohammad Iqbal, Director Horticulture Kashmir Ajaz Ahmad Bhat, Managing Director J&K HPMC Shafat Sultan participated online.
The meeting deliberated upon creating a UT wide vibrant mechanism for enabling direct farmer and buyer interactions and subsequent transactions over a transparent technology-enabled electronic platform supported with adequate backward and forward linkages covering agri horti and dairy produce of the UT. Such a market on ‘BeAM is envisaged to lead to “objective quality based trading” and bring in ecosystem partners for credit and market linkages and promote ‘electronic warehouse receipt” (eWR) based trading.
Terming the agriculture sector as the backbone of J&K’s economy, Principal Secretary called upon the officers to work with dedication and honesty so that the farmers are made not only aware but also conversant with how to get benefit of such innovative and technology-enabled options for marketing of their saleable agri commodities.
During the meeting, representatives of PARC Mumbai also shared their blueprint for marketing of niche products of the UT like Trout fish and the work done so far for popularizing and marketing of this famed fisheries product of Kashmir all over the country. PARC’s project proposal for end to end production, processing, packing, branding and marketing of highly nutrient-rich minor Millets of the UT which have high demand in the domestic and international market and potential for very high returns for the marginal farmers of Rajouri, Poonch and Ramban district was also discussed in detail.
CEO, BeAM, Ramesh Sinha, while giving out presentation, informed the Principal Secretary that access to a regulated and transparent marketplace, direct access to multiple buyers, receipt of cash directly into the account of beneficiary and redefining the value chain to minimize its intermediate costs are some of the major benefits of BeAM platform of Bombay Stock Exchange which will become available to the farmers and consumers of the UT. He offered to create a sustainable agriculture produce market mechanism customized to meet the specific needs of multi-agri/horti commodity value chains of the UT.
