Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Farooq Khan, today convened a meeting to review functioning of Agriculture Farms in Jammu division.While reviewing functioning of departmental farms, Advisor stressed for maximum utilization of available land resources so that import of seed from outside can be curtailed. He also exhorted that seed production should be targeted for realization of the potential yields in Wheat, Basmati and other crops.Advisor emphasized for increasing fodder seed production to meet requirement of the farmers for round the year availability of fodder in the region so that the mission of doubling farmers’ income can be achieved by way of diversification in agriculture. He also reiterated the commitment of government for bringing in reforms in the farm sector.Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production and Farmer’s Welfare Department, Navin Kumar Choudhary, who was also present in the meeting, asked the officers to prepare farm-wise workable action plan and increase the cropping intensity to more than two crops.
The officers were also directed to move into field and personally monitor the farm activities to realize the targets of production. It was also impressed upon officers to augment irrigation facilities at the farms so that irrigated area is increased which will trigger the production and quality of the seed. He also directed that all the small farms should be developed as specialized farms for cash crops like potato, spices, exotic vegetables, seedling of vegetables and flowers.Director Agriculture, Jammu, K K Sharma, apprised the meeting that 40% seed requirement of wheat and 60 % requirement of paddy is met from departmental farms production.It is worthwhile to mention here that a record procurement of 2.43 lakh quintals of wheat has been made by Food Corporation of India from Jammu division in collaboration with Directorate of AP&FW, Jammu. The wheat procurement has been made after a gap of 09 years. Also, during last Kharief Marketing Season-2020, a record production of 3.81 lakh quintals of paddy was also procured by Food Corporation of India in collaboration with Directorate of AP&FW, Jammu.Other officers present in the meeting were Joint Director (Farms) Jammu, Joint Director (Extension) Jammu, Agronomist (Veggies) Jammu, Potato Development Officer, Jammu, Farm Managers Chinore and Chakroi.