On Wednesday, Union Minister for Panchayati Raj, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah reviewed the working of the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department of the Union territory here with Union Minister e-inaugurating the 50,000 litre per day capacity milk plant located at Satwari in Jammu district. While underlining the immense untapped potential in J&K’s livestock and fisheries sectors, the Union Minister assured full support from the Centre.
These sectors have huge potential but that potential has remained untapped. Some time back, the UT government launched Holistic Agriculture Development Program (HADP) with the aim of revolutionize agriculture and allied sectors, improving the lives of farmers with increased returns besides attracting younger generation towards these sectors thus generating employment too. Agriculture is the main economic activity of Jammu and Kashmir as 70 percent of the population here has agriculture as predominant livelihood venture. However, given that this sector was run on traditional lines without any scientific interventions and modern technologies, the youth had started distancing from it. Even those who were solely dependent on agriculture, were fed up as the returns were very low in comparison with investment. Horticulture, animal and sheep husbandry besides fisheries are other allied sectors. Under HADP, all these sectors are supposed to collaborate with each other.
This programme has every potential to address the challenges and transform the allied sectors into prosperous sustainable agriculture economy in the region as its aim is to increase the production, productivity, growth, employment generation among other things which would double the contribution of the agri sector towards GDP. But the question remains whether the programme is followed up by the administration on the ground in letter and spirit. Cynicism not intended, the history of Jammu and Kashmir is replete with scores of examples wherein very people friendly schemes were launched but on the ground, the officials made the procedure so complicated that most of the people quit the idea of being part of such schemes. Few years back a young educated youth intended to run a sheep farm and applies for the same. He is made to run from pillar to post and after seven months, he just dropped the idea.
In this back drop, the UT administration should ensure that the programme is run with commitment and efficiency and unnecessary delays are done away with. It is heartening to note that the biggest successes of HADP is the increasing confidence of the younger generation in agriculture and allied sectors. As mentioned earlier, youth were moving away from agriculture due to its non-profitability but with the launch of this programme they have been finding a renewed interest in this sector and have greatly attained success. The administration should appreciate it and ensure that they don’t face any road blocks and bottle-necks.
