Srinagar: The Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal Saturday instructed the officers to come up with comprehensive plans for establishing Farmers Field Schools (FFSs) in all districts of valley to facilitate and strengthen the linkage between youth and department to encourage active exploration and understanding of modern farming system.
He said upcoming Farmer Field Schools at SM Farm Padgampora and Floriculture Nursery Lalmandi will serve as model centres for the purpose.
The Director said this while chairing a meeting here to review physical/ financial progress report under CAPEX/CSS, major physical achievements, organic farming in Kashmir province, area expansion under vegetable cultivation, status of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), status of KCC/PM-Kisan/PM-KMY, Soil Health Card Schemes and status of PM formalization of micro processing enterprise (FME).
While deliberating about the physical/ financial progress under CAPEX/CSS, the Director laid stress upon the officers to achieve a cent percent target within the stipulated time frame. He asked the officers to follow all codal formalities and reach out to the farmers for delivery of departmental schemes judiciously so that the funds allocated are spent efficiently.
He also asked the officers to explore the possibilities for cultivation of Saffron on a trial basis in different districts of Kashmir division especially Baramulla and Kupwara. He further added that more and more training camps and tours within and outside Jammu & Kashmir may be conducted on priority to upgrade the farming skills of the farmers.
He further instructed the concerned officers of all the districts to promote the vegetable cultivation at district level so that more and more growers get benefited. He said the Department is committed to start sale of vegetable seedlings from 25th February at kitchen garden Lalmandi which will continue to facilitate vegetable growers.
All Joint Directors, Chief Agriculture Officers and other concerned officers of the department attended the meeting.
