The State Level Sanctioning Committee of RKVY, headed by Chief Secretary, Iqbal Khandey on Friday approved the financial outlay of Rs 62.29 crore under its Normal component and Rs 90 crore under the National Mission on Saffron for the year 2015-16.RKVY was launched in J&K in the year 2008-09 and has given substantial fillip to Agriculture and allied sectors in the State. So far, Rs 200 crore has been spent upto March 2015 under the scheme. Similarly, under the National Saffron Mission which was started in 2010-11 as a flagship project, Rs 140.4 crore have been utilized to revive the economic potential of the Saffron Crop in the Traditional Saffron growing belts of the State.
While reviewing the progress achieved under RKVY, Chief Secretary emphasized on further improving the implementation of the scheme across all the sectors viz agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, sericulture, animal, sheep husbandry, fisheries etc with special focus on integrated development of major crops, creation of water resources for irrigation, protective cultivation (establishing Poly green houses), farm mechanization, upgradation and strengthening marketing facilities and promoting best quality goat and sheep.Chief Secretary also emphasized on expanding the area under Horticulture especially in Jammu region owing to its great economic potential as witnessed in the various Horticulture belts in Kashmir.
While reviewing district wise progress achieved under RKVY, Chief Secretary urged the concerned officers to ensure that farmers are supported as per the requirements and needs of the area.
He asked Commissioner Secretary PWD to take up the work on the ropeway project across Chenab River at village Kaban Paddar immediately , so that farm produce mostly peas cultivated by the farmers in the area can be transported across the river for sale in the Kashmir valley and other parts of the state.Earlier, Commissioner Secretary, Agriculture Production, M. A. Bukhari gave a detailed presentation regarding the achievements registered under various sectors during the previous years. He said RKVY intervention has significantly improved the food grain yields of major crops including rice, maize, wheat, pulses etc and also helped in enhancement in vegetable, honey, mushroom, flower and Cocoon production.
He said Rs. 31.78 crore were expended during 2014-15 under RKVY and its sub-schemes viz National Mission on Saffron, Vegetable Initiative for urban Clusters and National Mission on Protein Supplements.