Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare, Sheep and Animal Husbandry, Navin Kumar Choudhary, today visited Baramulla district and had a detailed review of functioning of departments besides taking stock of winter preparedness of the district administration.Principal Secretary, who is also Secretary In-charge District Baramulla, also assessed sector wise performance of Horticulture, Agriculture, Health, Education and other departments.District Development Commissioner, Baramulla, Bhupinder Kumar, presented a detailed overview of developmental activities and sector wise achievements of various departments in the district. He also briefed about various measures being taken up by the district administration with regard to recent surge in Covid-19 cases.While reviewing working of Horticulture department, Principal Secretary said that the sector is backbone of J&K’s economy and people in large are associated with it for their livelihood. He stressed upon framers to shift towards new methods of vegetable farming so that their produce shall have market in other places of the country with enhanced results.He asked for establishing farmers markets at identified available land where farmers can sell their local produce while directing concerned authorities to prepare the local farmers to switch over to high income crops.Navin Choudhry said emphasis should be laid on encouraging unemployed youth for adopting entrepreneurship in agriculture sector having vast potential in the valley.
Principal Secretary emphasized upon Horticulture department to conduct awareness camps on regular basis to impart necessary training and counseling to the farmers regarding plantation of high density plants instead of conventional fruit trees.Principal Secretary also took a detailed review of various other departments and was briefed about the achievements and progress of Health, Education, Agriculture, R&B, PHE and other departments. He stressed upon the concerned officers to expedite the pace of progress on all ongoing projects for completion in a time bound manner.Later, Deputy Commissioner briefed the meeting about winter preparedness of the administration elaborating in detail about all arrangements being put in place in this regard. He added that a comprehensive action plan, to tackle with all urgencies, has already been formulated.Regarding snow clearance in the district, he briefed that adequate number of machines have been kept ready for the winter season. He also informed that the scheduled power supply is being provided to all areas and new transformers are being installed in various locations of the district.Principal Secretary impressed upon all the Engineers to work towards better, reliable and quality power supply to consumers especially during winter season.Director General, Horticulture, Aijaz Ahmad Bhat, Director Agriculture Kashmir, Choudhary Mohammad Iqbal, Director Sericulture Manzoor Ahmad Qadri, Director Sheep Husbandry Bashir Ahmad Khan, Director Animal Husbandry Purnima Mittal, Director Horticulture, Planning and Marketing, Vishesh Mahajan, ADDC Baramulla, ADCs Baramulla, Sopore, Joint Director Planning besides all district officers were present on the occasion.