Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production & Farmers Welfare Department, Navin Kumar Choudhary, today convened first meeting of the Committee constituted for implementation of development package for agriculture and rural activities in Jammu and Kashmir (UT).Among others the meeting was attended by Chief General Manager, NABARD, Dr Ajay Kumar Sood; Vice Chancellor, SKUAST Jammu/ Kashmir, Professor J P Sharma; Directors of various concerned departments of both divisions including Horticulture, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Sheep Husbandry, Research SKUAST, CAD while Kashmir based officials participated online. Deputy General Manager, NABARD, Anamika, gave a detailed presentation on Bank’s initiatives besides highlighting various ongoing and completed projects of NABARD in J&K.Principal Secretary directed the HoDs to submit progress report of FPOs on quarterly basis besides ensuring coverage of more farmers under FPO scheme. He said that NABARD is promoting 17 FPOs under PRODUCE and PODF- ID fund of Government of India. Under the Central Sector Scheme, NABARD is promoting 16 FPOs each during 2020-2021 and 2021-22 in J&K, he added.Navin Chaudhary asked SKUAST to work on replication of technology transfer projects of NABARD in farmer fields and scale up the activities especially hydroponics for fodder/vegetable cultivation. The scheme can be integrated with the JK government subsidy scheme. Principal Secretary said that currently NABARD is implementing 27 technology transfer projects in J&K in collaboration with SKUAST and NGOs. He suggested for preparing a comprehensive list of unique products for GI registration with NABARD support, which will help in boosting the market value of those products.Navin Choudhary stated that micro irrigation is on the priority list of the government and exhorted upon all the development departments to work in a synchronized manner for effective implementation of development projects.VC SKUAST emphasized on value addition and GI tagging of honey of Kishtwar and other potential areas of J&K which has huge demand all over India.Chief General Manager, NABARD, stressed upon collective efforts of all stakeholders and convergence of UT government and NABARD schemes for better outcome.