Directorate of Agriculture Production & Farmers Welfare, Jammu in collaboration with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), J&K Branch Office on Friday organised one day Awareness/Sensitization Programme for officers and farmers here at Kisan Kendra, Talab Tillo, with the focus on BIS Activities & Quality Control Parameters relevant to Agriculture sector.The chief guest, K. K. Sharma, Director AP & FW, Jammu highlighted the need of Indian Standards in food and agricultural commodities as well as Inputs. He stressed on creating awareness among the farmers about the role of Indian Standards in attaining sustainable agriculture. The department is very much keen to develop a quality culture and quality consciousness among the farmers and officers and Standardization plays a significant role in this direction, he added.
Director said that focus should be on maintaining quality parameters in respect of Agriculture Inputs, Farm Machinery, Branding and Marketing of the farm produce, Agriculture Services, Testing of Inputs besides Skill Development of farmers in order to make agriculture more profitable. He underlined that if the quality ecosystem in the agri sector is improved then the income of farmers will automatically be enhanced.Earlier, Joint Director (Extension), Subash Chander Sharma in his welcome address gave a brief outline of the awareness programme and highlighted the role of standardization in Agriculture.Satyadeo Lal, Head BIS JKBO said that agriculture being the backbone of Indian economy is the prime sector in providing employment besides feeding the country. He informed that the BIS is the quality ecosystem of the country and has formulated more than 1000 standards covering all aspects of agriculture from “Farm to Fork”.
Nisha Bura, Scientist-D, BIS JKBO conducted the technical session in which she presented a detailed overview on Indian Standards formulation process, ISI Mark Certification Schemes, laboratory testing of various products and Indian Standards published in the field of food and agriculture. She also demonstrated ‘BIS Care App through which information on Indian Standards, ISI mark, products under compulsory certification can be easily assessed.The proceeding of the programme was carried out by Sanjay Dhar, Programme officer and vote of thanks was presented by Ashish kumar Dwivedi, Standard Promotion Officer, BIS JKBO.Besides other, those who attended the programme include Joint Director (Farms), Rajinder Sharma, Joint Director (Apiculture & Mushroom), Iqbal Singh, Deputy Director (Central), R. K. Hatashi , PPO, Devinder Sharma, Agriculture Economist, Vivek Kohali, Agriculture Chemist, Aman Jyoti Sharma, Deputy Director (Trainings), Deepak Kumar and DSSO, Suresh Khajuria. Farmers from different districts of Jammu Division also attended the programme.