Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura today said that agricultural output and productivity tend to contribute substantially to overall economic growth of the state which needs greater emphasis on further development of the agricultural sector.This was stated by the Minister while convening a high-level meeting of officers held to finalize various components of Agriculture sector under 15th Financial Commission.The meeting was attended by Secretary Agriculture, Showkat Ahmad Beigh, DG planning APD, Mohammad Ismail, special secretary APD Leena Padha, Director Agriculture Jammu, H K Razdan, Director Finance APD Mohammad Yousuf Pandit and MD Agros Rakesh Khujaria and other senior officers of the department.The Minister emphasized that focus should shift to agricultural models to increase farmers’ income, saying this can only be brought about by improving productivity, lowering costs, enhancing efficiency, providing market access to farmers, making them producers of products rather than commodities.
He further said that the government has taken a number of initiatives for development of Agriculture, allied sectors with focused strategy to increase production, productivity of crops and to enable farmers to take advantage of market opportunities.The Minister said that government would establish cold chain infrastructure to boost production in agriculture and allied sectors to tap demand at national level at the appropriate time.During the meeting, the Minister was informed that the department is adopting various strategies to realize the vision of the transformation of farmers’ economic condition and to change the approach of farmers towards market linkages.The Minister was informed that total amount earmarked in 15th Finance Commission works out at around Rs. 16835 crore. The main activities envisaged in the 15th FC are integrated farming system, organic farming, setting up of Agri mall in each district, creation of agricultural mandis, infra structure for procurement of cereals centers, up gradation , establishing of organic soil and bio fertilizers labs, value addition in agri products, development of sericulture training centers and infrastructure development of universities, he added.