Financial Commissioner (FC), Agriculture Production Department, Pramod Jain today convened a meeting to review the working and implementation of various Farmer Welfare Schemes in the Jammu Division.Director Agriculture , AK Malhotra, Joint Director, Agriculture, (Inputs) Jammu, KS Sambyal, Joint Director , Agriculture (Extension), H K Razdan, Chief Agriculture Officers of the districts and Sectoral Officers attended the meeting.Speaking on the occasion Financial Commissioner, directed the officers to ensure 100% coverage of farmers under Kisan Credit Cards after resolving the issues of uncovered beneficiaries by the end of April 2017. He also asked the officers to prepare a calendar of extension activities, farmers’ trainings, Kisan Melas and Farmers Awareness Camps in all the 26 Agriculture Sub-Divisions of the division along with one administrative inspection of every administrative unit in a year.He also called for regular conduct of Zonal Conferences in collaboration with Agriculture University/KVKs before the onset of Rabi/Kharif seasons besides preparation of a Vision Document for Kharif 2017.
Jain called upon all the executing officers to remain abreast with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to be adopted for implementation of the State and Centrally Sponsored Schemes. He said that the timeline as envisaged in the guidelines has to be adhered to by all the implementing officers While reviewing the functioning of Seed Multiplication Farms including Potato Farms, he directed to submit the status report regarding production and productivity of these farms for the last seven years. It was also stressed upon all the Chief Agriculture Officers for preparing the complete data-base as per required format of all the farmers for implementing Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme (DBT) with Adhaar, mobile numbers and bank accounts for schemes involving cash transfer from the next financial year. He added that the grievances and complaints should be addressed properly and there should be a proper system put in place for regular registration, follow up and monitoring of their disposals. He said there is a greater need for integration, co-ordination and synergy between different departments in case of farmer’s trainings to get much better results on ground.