Principal Secretary Agriculture, Sandeep Kumar Nayak, today chaired a meeting to review the progress of all Central and State schemes regarding the agriculture sector in the Kashmir province. The meeting held at Directorate of Agriculture Kashmir reviewed floriculture development, seed production and multiplication farms/potato development farms and other related sectors.The review meeting was attended by Director Agriculture Kashmir Showkat Ahmad Beigh, Director Law Enforcement S.S Sahani, Joint Director Agriculture Ext/Inputs JD Mushroom /JD Engineer/ Divisional level officers, CAOs and other concerned officers.
On the occasion, the Principal Secretary was informed that 22,567 soil health cards have been issued to farmers, while as Soil Testing labs & Mobile Soil testing vans are being utilised in all districts and far flung areas. Soil Survey Officer was asked to prepare Action plan for 2016 and put forth requirement of various equipments for soil survey mapping.The Principal Secretary was also apprised that the Mushroom training /Demonstration centre is coming up at Srinagar at the cost of Rs. 2.5 crore where spawn is grown under controlled conditions.
While reviving the progress of apiculture scheme, the Principal Secretary was informed that 35,000 honey bee production colonies have been registered in Kashmir division and production of 4,000 quintals of honey production has come up in 2015-16.Production of potato and vegetable production schemes were also discussed during the meeting and concerned heads of the scheme were instructed for area expansion and for providing of quality seeds. During the meeting, the Principal Secretary asked the concerned divisional heads for making seed pathology laboratories and seed analysis labs fully functional by projecting the need of equipments so that funds can be provided for the same. He also reviewed the progress on central schemes such as RKVY, National Saffron Mission, MIDH, NMOP, NAMSA, NFSM, NMEAT and other schemes and asked for evolving a mechanism for making better and judicious use of funds at ground level.He also instructed for development of seed multiplication farms in consultation with ICAR and Director Law Enforcement, who has been designated as nodal officer for coordination between the department and ICAR.