Coordination committee meeting of SKUAST-J held

Jammu: A meeting of thecoordination committee of SKUAST-Jammu, Agriculture, Horticulture, Sericulture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and other allied departments for Doubling Farmers’ Income in Jammu & Kashmir by 2022 was held Wednesday at SKUAST-Jammu under the Chairmanship of Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-Jammu, Prof. J. P. Sharma.
Prof. J. P. Sharma, in the review cum interaction meeting discussed various activities and plans to be carried out for Doubling Farmers’ Income and suggested to focus on Processing, Value Addition and Marketing for Doubling Farmers’ Income.
At the outset, he congratulated all the departments for doing wonderful activities in remote areas.
Prof. Sharma mentioned unawareness of farmers about the procedure to avail the schemes as a big issue due to which farmers’ are not able to reap much benefit from the Govt. schemes. He suggested to aware farmers about the same so that they can receive benefits from the allocations made under the different components of the schemes. Prof. Sharma informed that the seven KVKs of SKUAST-Jammu will organize one month program on mission mode to aware farmers’ about different schemes of Govt. of India and procedure to avail them. Initially fifteen programs are fixed in Jammu district and will be organized in the month of November.
Prof. Sharma advised Director Extension, SKUAST-Jammu to work in convergence mode with ATMA, NABARD, Lead Bank and NGOs for synergetic efforts in the mission. Prof. Sharma stressed upon to reduce the cost of cultivation of crops for increasing profitability of farmers’ and therefore focus on cost reducing technologies should be priority area. Moreover, now surplus management and nutritious food is more important than food security. Prof. Sharma was of the opinion that since we are self sufficient in production of almost all the commodities, now we need to focus on post harvest management to reduce the losses which are to the tune of 20 per cent to 30 per cent in case of grains and even more for perishable commodities like fruits and vegetables. He emphasised that the need of the hour is to develop competencies of farmers in packaging, branding and marketing which will reduce wastage and Zero Hunger through Zero Wastage slogan of Hon’ble Prime Minister will be meet out. He urged that climate smart technologies should be developed to cope up the challenges of climate change.
VC said that SKUAST-Jammu KVKs will establish protected cultivation structures, Integrated Farming System model, commodity based Processing Units at their centres and promote participatory seed production among farmers. He emphasised that Marketing is another area which can increase the income of the farmers’ as producer’s share in consumer’s rupee is less than 25 per cent which needs to be increased by shortening of marketing channel.
Earlier, Prof. R.K. Gupta welcomed Vice Chancellor and all the dignitaries and also delivered presentation about the draft report of doubling farmers’ income. Director(s) and representatives of agriculture and allied departments also presented draft report along with financial tapping for doubling the farmers’ income. Threadbare discussion was held on all major activities and sub activities to be carried out for doubling the farmers’ income by 2022 in Jammu & Kashmir.
Dr S K Gupta, Director Extension, Dr S K Gupta Director Education, Dr D P Abrol, Deans Faculty of Agriculture, Dr M S Bhalwal Dean FVSc & AH, Prof. Jag Paul Sharma, Associate Director Research along with Altaf Aijaz Andrabi, Director Agriculture, Kashmir, InderJeet, Director Agriculture, Jammu, Ram Sevak, Director Horticulture, K S Chib, Director Floriculture, K K Sharma, Agricultural Economist and representatives of other allied departments were also present at the meeting.
The meeting was also attended by Dr. B.C. Sharma, Prof. & Head, Div. of Agronomy, Dr. Bikram Singh, Prof. PBG, Dr. Shahid, Dr. Amrish Vaid, Dr. Amit Jasrotia, Dr. Rakesh Sharma and Dr. Mahital Jamwal. The meeting ended with vote of thanks by Dr R K Gupta Director Research SKUAST-Jammu.