To reach out to the farmers, Director Agriculture Jammu, Hari Krishan Razdan today visited various farmers fields and demonstration sites of Vegetables and Basmati Rice at Badyal Brahmna, Dherian, Baspur, Krotana, Bidhipur Jattan and Suchetgarh villages of R. S. Pura Sub-Division.The Director was accompanied by Deputy Director Agriculture (Central), Jammu C. M. Sharma, R. L. Bhagat, Chief Agriculture Officer, Jammu, S. Matinder Singh, ADO, Jammu, Farooq Ahmad Bhat, SDAO, R.S. Pura, Jagmohan Bhat, SMS-III, J. C. Raina, Information Officer, Deviditta Bhagat, AEO, R.S. Pura beside AEOs of other zones, Jr AEOs and VAEAs.At Badyal Brahmna and Dehrian villages of Kirpind Zone, the Director interacted with the vegetable growers and appreciated their efforts in adopting diversified cropping system. He exhorted upon them to take the benefits of government schemes to improve their economic condition. He impressed upon them to adopt protected cultivation measures also including proper staking of climbing vegetables, Bower System to prevent fruit rot and spoilage to increase their yields and improve the quality of vegetables.The Director inspected the Demonstration sites where transplanting was done in line, organic fertilizer and various other technology interventions were made in Basmati-370 at Krotona Khurd, Bidhipur Jattan and Suchetgarh laid under Focus Programme-Suchetgarh Basmati Rice Cluster (SBRC) Project of Chief Minister.
Razdan also interacted with a large gathering of farmers at Village Community Hall Suchetgarh where he said that all efforts will be made to restore the aroma of the traditional R. S. Pura Basmati through improvement of its quality parameters as per international market requirements.He asked the officials and field functionaries to work on the concept of Integrated Farming and make the farmers aware about Soil Health Card Scheme (SHCS), Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFSBY), Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme and to work to realize the target to double the farmer’s income by the year2022.R. L. Bhagat, Chief Agriculture Officer gave an overview of all the components and activities being undertaken for production of quality organic basmati under the SBRC Project. He apprised the Director that data of 715 farmers covered under the project has been uploaded in the PGS Portal.Choudhary Dev Raj, President, R.S.Pura basmati Growers Association and Swarn Lal, Ex-Sarpanch, Suchetgarh also spoke on the occasion and highlighted various problems and difficulties of the farmers of the area which included provision of subsidy for more pumpsets and borewells, making all the tubewells functional, demand of Yellow Rust Resistant Wheat Varieties, enhancement of incentive for Vermicompost pits, provision of sprayers etc.