Financial Commissioner (FC), Agriculture Production Department, Pramod Jain chaired interdepartmental meeting to review the implementation of Climate Change Project in the State.Director Agriculture Jammu A K Malhotra, Chief General Manager NABARD Vijay Kumar, Director Ecology Environment & Remote Sensing O P Sharma, , Director Planning APD H R Bhagat, Nodal Officer Climate Change Project Mrs M A W Deva of Forest Department, other senior officers of Agriculture Department and NABARD attended the meeting. Officers from Kashmir division also participated in the meeting through video conferencing.Expressing concern over delay in implementation of the project, Mr Jain stressed upon all the agencies to gear up for the time-bound implementation of different components of the project in Bhalwal Block in Jammu District and Budgam Block. He impressed upon all the executing officers to complete the baseline survey of both the blocks at an earliest and all the developmental activities be initiated simultaneously. In this context, he called upon them to persuade the small and marginal farmers to adopt protected cultivation and crop system based technologies with a focus on organic farming.
He also instructed the Nodal Officer of the Project that the State level and District level workshops for capacity building of the staff of implementing agencies should be conducted at the earliest time. He also called upon the scientists of SKUAST Jammu and SKUAST Kashmir to work on those varieties of crops that are adaptable to the climate change and further popularizing the benefits of such varieties in the field. He added that the timeline as envisaged in the guidelines should be strictly adhered to by all the implementing agencies .Director Ecology, Environment & Remote Sensing O P Sharma suggested for promotion of traditional/ local innovative technologies and crops in the field. He advocated for improving the nutritional status of the farming community including nomadic communities adding that the much focus should be on small holdings for achieving the Sustainable Global Goals. Director Agriculture Jammu A K Malhotra informed that most of the baseline survey has been completed in Bhalwal block and community mobilization is in progress.