Director Agriculture (J) kick starts Kharif-2021 Campaign

Jammu: Director Agriculture, Jammu, K. K. Sharma Saturday kick started the Kharif 2021 campaign by conducting multiple interactions with the farmers in Sub-Division Marh and Sub Division Samba.
The visit was conducted to gear up the departmental activities at grassroots level in view of the upcoming Kharif season.
The team of officer including Joint Director Agriculture (Extension), Shahid Iqbal Sheikh, Chief Agriculture Officer Jammu, A.S. Reen, DAO (Extension), Vinod Sharma, Sub-Divisional Agriculture Officer Marh, Ashwani Kumar Jojra, AEO Pounichak, Tirth Singh and AEO Marh, Vikram Katayal accompanied the Director during the visit.
Distribution of Trial Kits of newly released varieties of Paddy Basmati (SJBR 118,123,138) among the farmers at Pounichak marked the launch of Kharif campaign. Also Paddy Threshers were handed over to PRI Member of every panchayat of the Pounichak zone free of cost as part of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s announcement regarding providing one thresher per panchayat of UT. This will positively facilitate the farmers of the area by making the threshing process cost and time effective. A programme involving similar activities was also held at Panchayat Halqa of zone Marh.
Interacting with the farmers at Pounichak and Marh, the Director asked the field staff to reach out to the farmers and make all out efforts to achieve objective doubling of farmer’s income by 2022 through the implementation of schemes like Soil Health Card Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFSBY), Kisan Credit Card Scheme (KCCS) and Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), Farm Mechanization, Formation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (ODOP) with special focus on organic farming. The Director also stressed on following the guidelines and norms and also taking the local representatives into confidence while implementing various farmer welfare schemes.
The Director Agriculture stressed upon the officers to motivate the farmers to go for the production of exotic and high value vegetables under protected and controlled conditions to get round the year production for high returns by Product Branding, Value Addition and Better Market Linkages. He also stressed on adherence to COVID 19 advisory during conductance of field activities.
DDC Member, Balbir Lal, BDC Chairman, Surinder Kumar, Former MLA, Sukhnandan Choudhary and PRI members and progressive farmers were also present on the occasion.
Later, launching the Kharif campaign in Samba District, the Director along with Joint Director distributed new Basmati varieties among the farmers at village Koulpur. He also inspected the Hi Tech Poly House installed at village Tarore. CAO Samba, District Officers, SDAO Samba, SMS Samba and other officers were also present on the occasion.