Minister for Industries and Commerce, Chander Parkash today inaugurated exhibition-cum-Kissan mela organized by Agriculture Department at Ramgarh.The Minister was accompanied by Vice Chairman J&K Advisory Board for development of Kissans, Daljit Singh Chib, Vice-Chairman J&K Advisory Board for Welfare of OBCs, Rashpaul Verma and Deputy Commissioner Samba Sheetal Nanda. The Minister inspected stalls established by Agriculture, Sericulture, Horticulture, Floriculture, Apiculture, KVIB, Banks and other departments for awareness of farmers regarding latest agriculture equipments and techniques.Various Scientists and Subject Matter Experts from SKUAST Jammu educated the farmers regarding Soil Health cards, Integrated Pest Management and diseases like Yellow Rust.Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that objective of these programmes is to disseminate information regarding latest techniques, tools and government schemes to the farmers. He said that farmers need to adapt to new technologies and cited mobile apps like Krishi Bazar, Pusa krishi and Fasal Bima which can benefit them immensely. He added that government is making dedicated efforts for socio-economic empowerment of farming community.
VC OBC Board exhorted upon the farmers to focus on cultivation of pulses along with other crops and highlighted importance of Krishi Sanchai Yojana for a district like Samba which is mainly a Kandi belt. He highlighted various initiatives being taken up by the Center and state governments to double the farm income besides boosting agriculture production. He said that farmers should focus on sowing multiple crops in a year for making this activity financially viable.Later, eight progressive farmers who had performed multiple farming activities were awarded cash prize of Rs 10000 and citation by the Minister and other dignitaries.A vegetable farmer, Ram Paul was also awarded along with Horticulture and Apiculture departments for organising best stalls.The Information Department Samba also organised a cultural programme promoting schemes like Kissan Credit cards, Soil Health Cards and Fasal bima yojana.ADC Samba Tilak Raj Sharma,Joint Director Agriculture K.S Sambyal ,Chief Agriculture Officer, Choudhary Mohd Iqbal, Chief Horticulture Officer, C.L Sharma and Deputy Director (ATMA) Ashok Gupta besides other officials were also present at the programme.