Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan, today convened a meeting to take stock of the functioning and activities of Agriculture the Department Kashmir.The meeting was attended by Director Agriculture, Kashmir, Mission Director, Agriculture, Kashmir, and officers from all the districts of the Kashmir Division.The Div Com was informed that the net sown area in Kashmir Division is 3.11 lakh hectares which include 1.90 lakh hectares of irrigated land, and 1.18 lakh hectares of un-irrigated land, while as the number of operational holdings include 6.28 lakh, with an average holding size of 0.53 hectares. He was also informed about various schemes, including Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, National Mission on Saffron, Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, National Mission on Oilseed & Oilpalm, National Food Security Mission, National Mission on Agriculture Extension & Technology, and National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture being implemented by the Department, with the approved Action Plan 2016-17 involving a total of Rs 11056.35 crore.
Speaking on the occasion, the Div Com called for sustained efforts for the development of the sector, besides upliftment of the farmers’ interests in agriculture. He stressed that the Department should give special focus to the production of aromatic varieties of rice besides marketing outside of the state.He also emphasised on boosting the organic farming and asked the Department to make exclusive clusters for organic farming in every district of the Valley directed the concerned to initiate a process for identification of land so that office is shifted to a new building.Earlier, a detailed brief was given in the meeting and was given out that the area under different crops in the Division during Kharif include 141.34 Ha (53%) under Paddy, 80.74 Ha (30%) under Maize, 21.79 hectares (8%) under Vegetables, 19.88 hectares (7%) under Pulses and 3.67 hectares (1%) under Saffron.
While as the area under different crops in the Division during Rabi include 81.11 hectares (59%) under Oilseed, 29.37 hectares (21%) under Fodder, 11.56 hectares (8%) under Pulses, 11.14 hectares (8%) under Vegetables and 4.66 hectares (3%) under Wheat.Besides, the productions during Kharif include 848.04 metric tons (MT) of Paddy, 599.09 MT of Vegetables, 161.48 MT of Maize and 19.67 MT of Pulses, the productions during Rabi include 1020.64 MT of Fodder, 296.55 MT of Vegetables, 81.11 MT of Oilseed, 13.19 MT of Pulses and 8.36 MT of Wheat, it was further given out.The meeting was also told that while the current productivity for Rice, Maize, Wheat and Pulses include 63.40 tons per hectare (T/Ha), 20.00 T/Ha, 18.08 T/Ha and 9.89 T/Ha respectively, the food grain production in relation to population growth in the Division is in the deficit of about 25%, involving production of about 1090 MT against the requirement of 1343 MT.