SRINAGAR: Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of the Agriculture Production Department, Atal Dulloo, today chaired a meeting regarding the strengthening of the Project Monitoring Unit (PML) and other developments under the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) at the Civil Secretariat here.
The meeting was attended by the Director of General Planning, Agriculture Production Department, Special Secretary, Agriculture Production Department, Mission Director, HADP, Nidhi Srinivas from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ankur Bansal, CEO/Founder GDI (BMGF), member PMU and Technical Officers.
During the meeting, a detailed PowerPoint Presentation on various aspects of HADP highlighting challenges confronted in the implementation of the mega project.
ACS impressed upon the officers to implement HADP in its entirety keeping its aims and objectives in mind. He emphasized the need of laying special focus on various aspects like procurement, IT, value chain development, and marketing for the effective implementation of HADP.
Dulloo said that the ambitious plan will bring about significant improvement in agriculture and allied sectors in Jammu and Kashmir, providing a boost to the region’s economy and benefitting farmers and consumers alike. He added that the interventions under the plan will enhance the quality and quantity of produce in the region. “Various multi-pronged strategies ranging from infrastructure development to specific technological interventions are being ensured for reaping the benefits,” he added.
It was informed that expert teams from other parts of the country will be visiting the UT to share their models and expertise in the sector. Their best practices will be adopted and replicated here in J&K to get optimum outcomes.
Regarding the ‘Kisan Sampark Abhiyan’, Atal Dulloo said that the people have evinced great enthusiasm and their overwhelming participation has given new dimensions to this ambitious programme of the government.
It was also informed in the meeting that with the implementation of HADP, JK will have secured livelihood for 13 lakh farm families with an emphasis on 2,62,006 marginal families, creation of 18,861 additional enterprises, and additional 2,87,910 jobs besides skill development to over 2.5 lakh persons in agri-skills.
In another separate meeting, Atal Dulloo reviewed various innovative interventions being launched toward revitalizing agriculture in J&K under HADP.
In this regard, it was informed that panchayat-level common service centers (Kissan Khidmat Ghar) will pave the way for holistic area-specific agricultural plan implementation. Besides, the block-level agri-extension advisory committee will provide the services at farmers’ doorsteps. Also, the Kissan Khidmat Ghar will serve as a convergence hub at the district level for end-to-end solutions.
