Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production Department, Navin K.Choudhary, today chaired a meeting to review progress on saturation of Kissan Credit Cards (KCC) to all eligible farmers under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan.Principal Secretary stressed the need for empowering farmers by financial inclusion, extending easy and affordable credit facilities through KCC. “Joint initiatives of Bankers and allied Departments can bring out the farmers from distress due to COVID-19 slowdown and guide them towards growth and prosperity”, he maintained.He said that the government is taking innovative initiatives in agriculture for securing and sustaining production, productivity and growth in rural areas for improving their living standards.Principal Secretary directed the concerned authorities to launch awareness programmes in villages by dovetailing their resources in a coordinated manner. He asked the agriculture and allied departments to organize exhibitions/melas in each district in collaboration with Bankers during “Kissan Pakhwada” amid observance of all preventive protocols and SOPs regarding COVID-19 like social distancing and mask wearing.
Principal Secretary further directed all the bank branchs to display banners highlighting schemes for the benefit of farmers besides asking agriculture and its allied departments to publish informative books, leaflets, pamphlets and a booklet on agro-based products to assist farmers and promote this mission. Such information should also be kept in Bank Branches for information of all, he added.Principal Secretary said “Kissan Pakhwada” in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be celebrated between July 7 to July 21 for invigorating spirit of our farmers by facilitating them at their door steps to promote funding in agriculture sector and by achieving cent percent inclusion under KCC of all eligible farmers.Among others, Director, Agriculture Jammu, Inderjeet, Director Animal Husbandry, Vivek Sharma, Director Sheep Husbandry Jammu, Dr. Sanjeev Kumar; Director Horticulture Jammu, Ram Sevak, Director Fisheries, J&K, Mohammad Ameen, Director Horticulture (P&M) J&K, Imam Din; Director Planning, APD, Dr H S Arora, Technical Officer, APD, Vijay Kumar Upadhaya and representatives of all lead banks were present in the meeting. Besides, Director Agriculture Kashmir, A A Andrabi, Director Animal Husbandry Kashmir, Poornima Mittal and other concerned officers from Kashmir Division attended the meeting through video conferencing.