Principal Secretary Agriculture Production Department, Navin Kumar Choudhary today chaired meeting of State Level Executive Committee of National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) and State Empowered Committee meeting of National e-Governance Program in Agriculture (NeGP-A) for approving the action plans for the schemes.Speaking on the occasion, the Principal Secretary urged to adopt integrated mode of farming for sustainable growth in agriculture and allied sectors.He impressed upon officers to implement the scheme so that its benefit percolates to the ground and impact is registered making agriculture more productive, sustainable, besides remunerative and climate resilient.Navin Choudhary stressed upon to conserve natural resources through appropriate soil and moisture conservation measures and to adopt comprehensive soil health management.He also stressed for optimal utilization of water resources through efficient water management to expand coverage for achieving 'more crop per drop' and to develop capacity of farmers and stakeholders.The Principal Secretary highlighted the role of integrated farming in order to ensure food security and minimizing risks from crop failure through supplementary-cum- residual production systems.He also impressed that the project should be implemented in such a way that it would make current service delivery mechanisms more efficient, transparent and accountable which will result in facilitation of farmers to have easy accessibility to these services through multiple service delivery channels.
On the occasion, Director Agriculture Kashmir, Altaf Aijaz Andrabi, who is also Mission Director NMSA and (NeGP-A), gave a detailed presentation of the respective e-schemes and highlighted the impact of these schemes for promotion of location specific improved agronomic practices.While deliberating on the key objectives of NeGP-A scheme, the Mission Director informed that the Department is putting forward for bringing farmer centricity and service orientation to the programs by enhancing its reach and impact of extension services, improving access of farmers to information a services throughout crop cycle, enhancing a integrating the existing ICT initiatives of Centre, and States.He also informed that WhatsApp groups have been formed at the Panchayat level and latest technical know-how is disseminated among the farmers on real time basis and providing diagnostic redressal to the concerns of the farming community.He said that NMSA has been formulated for enhancing agricultural productivity especially in rain-fed areas focusing on integrated farming, water use efficiency, soil health management and synergizing resource conservation.During the meeting the total plan of Rs 3703.17 lakh was approved for the year 2020-21 under NMSA and NeGP-A.The meeting was attended by Director Agriculture Jammu, Director Horticulture Jammu, Director Command Area Development Jammu, Director Planning APD, Director Research SKUAST, and Director Animal Husbandry Jammu.Director Agriculture Kashmir, Director Horticulture Kashmir, Director Animal Husbandry Kashmir, Director Finance APD and Joint Director Agriculture Extension Kashmir participating in the meeting via video conference.