J&K youth turning into ‘Agripreneurs’ with govt support

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Sunday said it has taken innovative measures and policy decisions to increase the income of farmers and encourage the youth to adopt agriculture as a medium of employment.
“Over the past two years, the government has shifted to the improved farming system on scientific lines and market-oriented policies in order to make agriculture and allied sector a sustainable and profitable economic activity,” an official spokesperson said.
Braving all the challenges of agricultural reform, the ranking of J&K in monthly farm income has improved and the UT is standing tall among top five states and union territories.
“J&K has limitless potential in agriculture and concerted efforts by the government are opening up doors of opportunity for small and marginal farmers. Never before had high-density plantation investment in agro-based industries taken place at the kind of speed witnessed in the last two years,” the spokesperson said.
He said, the J&K government has focused on creating umbrella groups for selling local and small-scale products, besides holding brainstorming sessions on the innovations happening in various categories of startups in agriculture such as agro-processing, artificial intelligence, digital agriculture, agricultural mechanization, waste to wealth, dairy, fisheries, and other entrepreneurship programs.
Green Agriculture Revolution, and the contribution of Agricultural Universities, Institutions and Krishi Vigyan Kendras has changed the way of farming in an innovative way by extending benefits of modern technologies to the farmers.
“The government is developing strategies and credible mechanisms for upscaling of farmers-led innovations and further strengthening the spirit of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat and making J&K ‘AatmaNirbhar’ (self-reliant) in agriculture sector, besides a host of measures for achieving faster growth in the agriculture sector along-with providing sustainable income and livelihood to farmers have also initiated,” he added.
The spokesperson said J&K today has thousands of Agripreneurs, champion farmers whose lives were changed with the support of the UT administration.
“Even many women agripreneurs encouraged others to take up farming and earn a respectable income,” he added.