Navin chairs HPC meet; pitches for prioritizing agriculture & allied sectors to scale up rural earnings

Jammu: The Government Tuesday decided to lay prime focus on strengthening agricultural and allied sectors under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund scheme supported by NABARD borrowings with the aim to scale up rural earnings.
Chairing the maiden High Powered Committee (HPC) meeting of RIDF of this fiscal here, Principal Secretary Finance and Chairman of the panel, Navin Choduary asked for submitting proposal for fifty Bore wells each for Kashmir and Jammu divisions under the minor irrigation component of RIDF. He stressed on prioritizing agriculture allied sectors and other rural livelihood projects under RIDF, even as it also finances PHE, Irrigation, PWD and other sectors. He asked NABARD to go for evaluation of Animal Husbandry and alike projects it has funded to assess their ground impact for future planning.
The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary R&B, Khursheed Ahmed, Secretary PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Farooq Ahmed Shah, Secretary Agriculture, Manzoor Ahmad Lone, senior NABARD and Finance department functionaries.
Stressing on programs helpful in boosting rural earnings, the Principal Secretary called for promotion of horticulture by going for major infrastructure development and technological interventions in the potential areas, besides promotion of mechanized farm operations. He called for introducing Bamboo plantation in Kandi areas- universally acknowledged as lucrative cash crop. He also welcomed the proposal of Agriculture department for creation of farmers’ knowledge platform by establishing orientation training centres in the twin divisions for their training in latest farm techniques and capacity building.
Earlier, the meeting discussed status of 221 ongoing projects funded under RIDF and new proposals received from various departments.