Principal Secretary, Sheep & Animal Husbandry and Agriculture Production Department, Navin Kumar Choudhary today chaired a meeting regarding finalization of plan under CAPEX for the year 2020-21 of Agriculture Production department.Threadbare discussions were held to finalize plan under CAPEX for the year 2020-21 as per ceiling conveyed by Finance Department. It was given out that under the Revenue budget of Agriculture department, Rs 19 crore has been demanded for various schemes of Agriculture for the welfare of farmers community and renovation of buildings and purchasing of machinery for agriculture department.Director Agriculture Department Jammu, Inderjeet briefed the meeting about details of different aspects of budget of Jammu Province and other works being carried out in the department.Director Agriculture Department Kashmir, Director Sericulture Kashmir, Director Command Area Development Kashmir and other senior officers of concerned departments also attended the meeting via video conferencing.Principal Secretary stressed upon concerned officers to facilitate the cocoon farmers for selling their crops without any restriction. He also stressed for promoting organic farming, mushroom cultivation and establishing processing units of spices and pulses.Navin Choudhary asked the officers to cancel those tenders where no work has been done.
He also directed the officers that the Chakrohi and Chinore Farms would be revitalized so that the quality seed production would be increased and farmers can get it without any hurdle.Among others, Director Command Area Development Jammu, Deputy Director Planning Agriculture Department and other senior officers of concerned departments were also present in the meeting.Later, the Principal Secretary also held a meeting with Vice Chancellors of SKUAST-Jammu, Prof R K Gupta and Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-Kashmir, Prof Nazir Ahmed to discuss the Capex Budget 2020-21 pertaining to these Universities.Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-Kashmir, Prof Nazir Ahmed attended the meeting through video conferencing from Srinagar. Both the Vice Chancellors gave details about the activities of the agriculture universities besides Capex Budget 2020-21 of the SKUAST-J and SKUAST-K.The discussions were held on various infrastructure development activities, capital accounts of economic services and work description. It was also informed in the meeting about the steps taken by the Universities for research of agriculture related activities and to conduct training programmes for the farmers and motivate them to adopt the scientific methods in their farming.