In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the Agriculture Department has been playing a key role to assist the farmers in Ganderbal district. After the announcement of certain relaxations in the lockdown by the Government, Agriculture Department started reaching out to the farmers and extending every possible help in resumption of the farming activities on a large scaleAs the nature has bestowed the district with fertile terrain favorable for cultivation, different crops like paddy, maize, oil seeds, pulses and traditional vegetables are under cultivation in the district.“On announcement of lockdown, the agriculture season had already set in and since then the department has been working tirelessly to ensure timely availability of high yielding seeds, machinery, fertilizers, other agriculture inputs and allied tools to the farmers to enable them to keep pace with the Kharief season in the district”, said Chief Agriculture Officer Ganderbal, Ghulam Muhammad Doubi, adding that the department has distributed over 1750 quintals of seeds of different varieties which include paddy, maize, hybrid maize, potato, vegetables and fodder during lockdown period besides issuing 3073 soil health cards among the farmers of the district.In the backdrop of lock-down, the department, under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, disbursed Rs 3.69 crore among 18466 farmers, registered with the department, as financial support to enable them to carry forward their farming activities smoothly during lockdown period. Under the scheme each beneficiary farmer is given Rs. 2000 each every four months and so far 5th installment has been disbursed to the farmers of the district.
Besides 44 hectares of land have been brought under seed village programme while the department has distributed 26.20 quintals of high yielding paddy seed varieties like SR-I, SR-II, SR-III and SR-IV aimed to improve the income level of farmers, the CAO said. In Red Zone areas of the district, over 350 quintals of seeds were also made available to the farmers through home delivery system during this lock down period.There are several welfare schemes approved by the Government for the farmer community and the department is involving Panchayat Raj Institutions in selecting genuine beneficiary so that benefit of such schemes will reach to the persons in a transparent manner for whom these have been approved. The department has also made available irrigation pump sets, brush cutters, weeders, power sprayers, tool kits and other equipment to the farmers during this period.All out efforts are being made by the department for improving the economic status of the farmers and to achieve this goal the department is providing timely guidance to them with regard to selection of seeds, spray of fields, usage of quality fertilizers in appropriate quantity as per the soil testing report during both Kharief and Rabi seasons.“The aim of the department is to improve the economic conditions of the farmers of the district to increase the production of rice and vegetables to surpass the local demand and to export the surplus produce to other districts of the Valley and the mission will continue till the goal is achieved for which both farmers and department have to work together”, CAO Agriculture said.