Jammu: Commissioner Secretary Agriculture Production Department, Muhammad Afzal Bhat, Saturday chaired the Inter-departmental Working Group (IDWG) meeting of “Sub-Mission on Agriculture Extension (SMAE-ATMA)” and Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY). The meeting was conducted as per recent instructions of the Union Agriculture Minister that the action plans under various CSS Schemes need to be submitted to GOI latest by 15.04.2018. It was apprised that State action plan amounting Rs. 3328.67 lakhs has been formulated as per guidelines of the scheme. The thrust areas under the scheme include identification of best progressive farmers for motivation of other farmers, publication of success stories with focus on large scale trainings/exposure visits of extension officers and field functionaries and awareness dissemination at the block level.
In the IDWG the annual action plan for an amount of Rs. 9900.00 Lakhs was approved for Micro-Irrigation and Other Interventions under “Per Drop More Crop” component of PMKSY. The Commissioner Secretary directed all the departments to coordinate effectively so as to achieve the desired goal of providing assured and efficient irrigation facilities to the farming community of the state. The State Level Executive Committee (SLEC) meeting of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme-Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM), Sub-Mission on Seeds & Planting Material (SMSP) under “National Mission on Agriculture Extension & Technology (NMAET)” were also held on the occasion.
The IDWG was also attended by DG Sericulture, Mir Tariq Ali, Director Agriculture, Jammu, H. K. Razdan, Special Secretary (Technical), Forest Department K. Ramesh Kumar (IFS), Additional Secretary, Horticulture, Dr Subash Chander, Director SAMETI-J, Dr K. S. Risam, Director CAD, Jammu S. Jatinder Singh, Director SAMETI-K, Prof Mustaq Ahmad, Director Horticulture, Jammu Anuradha Gupta, Director Floriculture, Babila Rakwal, Joint Director Finance Department, Showkat Hussain Mir, Joint Director of Agriculture (Extension) R. L. Bhagat, Assistant Director, APD, Suresh Kumar Sharma, Assistant Director (Plg), CAD Mudassir Yaqoob and Under Secretary, APD Rajni Bala.
The SLEC approved the Work Plan for the total extended cost of Rs. 2000.00 Lakhs under “Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM)” for the year 2018-19. The SLEC also discussed and accorded in principle approval to the Action Plan under Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP) for the year 2018-19. It was apprised that Seed Replacement Rate (SRR) of 33% for Self Pollinated Crops and 40% for Cross Pollinated Crops has been targeted under the work plan of 2018-19.
The Nodal officer (Director Agriculture Jammu) H. K. Razdan made a detailed Powerpoint Presentation for the annual action plan under Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) and Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Materials (SMSP) in the SLEC meeting. The Director Agriculture, Kashmir A. A. Andrabi and officers from the SKUAST-Kashmir attended the through video-conferencing.