State Fodder Policy on anvil: Mir
5 Dariya News (Anubhav Suri)
Jammu 19-Nov-2013
Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir today asked the officers of SKUAST, Agriculture, Horticulture and Forests to come up with their comments and suggestions so that a comprehensive State Fodder Policy is framed at the earliest.The Minister was reviewing status of the proposed policy at an officers meeting held here today.Underlining need for increasing fodder production in the State, the Minister said that framing of State Fodder Policy has become imperative to bridge the gap between demand and availability of the fodder for livestock population of the State.Stressing on inter departmental coordination, the Minister asked the officers to frame action plans for procurement of fodder seeds till the Policy is approved and implemented in the State.The Minister asked the authorities of SKUAST to organize awareness camps to sensitize farmers about the new technological innovations and the schemes with subsidy components, introduced in the agriculture sector. He said the agriculture department has direct contact with farmers and asked the authorities of SKUAST to involve the department in extending the schemes introduced in agriculture sector.It was given out that 75.59 MT fodder is available in the state against the requirement of 148.17 MT while the total livestock population of the state has reached to 111.742 lakh. The meeting was informed that a project of Rs. 30 crore has been approved by the Centre against which over Rs. 7 crore stands released so far for the purpose.Earlier, Commissioner -Secretary Agriculture Production, Dr. Asgar Samoon gave an overview of the Policy and the role of the agriculture department in its implementation.Senior officers from Agriculture, SKUAST, Forest and Horticulture departments were present in the meeting.