Navin pitches for doubling farmers’ income through convergence, Atma Nirbhar Bharat

Jammu: Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare, Navin K Choudhary, Friday emphasized on doubling farmers’ income through convergence and Atma Nirbhar Bharat Scheme in a meeting held at SKUAST-Jammu.
Highlighting the decision of Government to eliminate Essential Commodities Act and allow direct marketing by farmers, Choudhary stressed upon the use of Atma Nirbhar Bharat scheme for popularizing value addition, processing, grading and packaging. He advocated submission of projects under Atma Nirbhar Bharat scheme for developing farm gate facilities in Jammu region.
Navin Choudhary asked the Director Agriculture, Jammu to provide market space to Self Help Groups for displaying their products to motivate entrepreneurs. He emphasized on improving the viability of cold storage of fruits and vegetables and suggested selection of 250 panchayats for demonstration of latest technologies in the field. He called for greater convergence among university scientists and departments for achieving better results.
Vice-Chancellor, SKUAST-Jammu, Professor J P Sharma stressed upon the need of adopting Integrated Farming System, protected cultivation, on-site organic production and community level value addition through collaborative efforts of KVKs and line departments.
Director Research, Dr. R.K. Gupta, delivered a brief presentation on University activities, including the issues of establishment of three new KVKs for Udhampur, Ramban and Kishtwar and faculties viz. Dairy Technology, Agriculture Engineering, School of Agribusiness management and Division of Seed Science and technology.
On the occasion, an exhibition was also organised to display University technologies and farmers’ innovations.
Meanwhile, statutory officers including Deans, Directors of the University and Directors of State Agriculture and line departments shared the concerns related to farming sector in Jammu region.
The meeting among others was attended by Director Agriculture, InderJeet, Director CAD, Director Horticulture, Ram Sevak, Director Animal Husbandry, Vivek Sharma, Director Fisheries, Mohd Amin, Director Sheep Husbandry, Dr Sanjeev Kumar, Director Floriculture, K S Chib and Heads of other allied departments.
The meeting ended with Vote of Thanks by Dr S K Gupta Director Extension SKUAST-Jammu.