Jammu, Nov 17: ‘’The future belongs to India,’’ says Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, on Thursday, at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology-Jammu (SKUAST-Jammu) while inaugurating Kissan Mela here today.
“With 86000 active start-ups in the country, India has become the fifth largest economy in the world. India has surpassed the country like Britain that has ruled us for several years. If we moveat the same pace, I am confident that the future belongs to India only,” the LG said.
“India, he said, was once a global leader in the “knowledge economy,” and the nation had taught other nations how to do things using this information. However, for some reasons, we’ve been slipping behind presently.But under the able leadership of PM Narendra Modi, we will become the world leader again”.
Speaking about the agriculture sector, the LG said that the country has witnessed production of 3157 lakh tonnes of food grains in the year 2021-22 which is 50 lakh tonnes higher than the production during the preceding year i.e. 2020-21.
“And we have set a target of 3280 lakh tonnes for the year 2022-23. Of this, 1648 lakh tonne production is expected only in the Rabi season only,” the LG said.
Speaking about the agriculture sector in J&K, the LG said that the UT has faced several challenges in the past due to the tough topography of the region and other climatic factors.
“But over the past 2-3 years we have been making serious efforts to overcome these challenges,” he said.
The LG said that he understands the infrastructure, storage, wastage, marketing linkages and logistics related challenges faced by the farmers and producers in the UT of J&K.
“And these challenges have remained a major impediment in the growth of J&K. But our team of officers led byAtal Duloo have been doing tremendous work to improve the agriculture and the allied sector in the UT,” the LG said while complementing the Additional Chief Secretary,Atal Duloo.
He also praised the agricultural experts, scientists, farmer boards and other departments for their cooperation in understanding the problems faced by the farmers and addressing them on priority basis.
He said that the Prof. Mangla Rai-led committee has done a tremendous job by suggesting a number of measures through a comprehensive report to increase the production, quality in the UT and to raise the farmers’ income.
“Over the past few years, several poor states/UTs have witnessed massive growth due to major interventions in the agriculture sector. J&K too will see more than expected growth if the recommendations of the Dr. Mangla Rai-led committee are implemented on the ground with seriousness,” the LG said.
He said that the PM Narendra Modi has also assured to help the Union Territory in the implementation of the Dr. Mangla Rai-led committee’s recommendations prepared after consulting around 50 farmer leaders.
Underlining the key issues in the agriculture sector including climate change, soil infertility, biodiversity erosion, and increasing input cost, the
LG said, “the Apex Committee report has almost laid focus on all the challenges and ways to address them”.
Quoting an Israeli company’s report, the LG said that by 2050, when the world population will touch the 9.1 billion mark, there would be four major challenges before the world in the agriculture sector: shortage of water, environmental impact on agriculture, soil health, and lack of agricultural related understanding among the younger generation.
“Our Apex Committee has presented its report by taking into consideration all these four factors and if all goes well with the help of administrative officers, KVKs, farmers, agricultural scientists, I’m sure J&K’s contribution to the national development will be huge through the agricultural sector,” hoped the LG Manoj Sinha.
The LG said that to ensure that the committee’s recommendations are implemented on the ground, KVKs will start functioning in all the districts of Jammu province.
“And we will hold similar programmes with the stakeholders in Kashmir Valley as well to understand the issues and challenges over there, very soon,” the LG said.
On the occasion, the Lt Governor initiated the functioning of the KrishiVigyan Kendras of Ramban and Kishtwar districts, virtually.
With the operationalization of KrishiVigyan Kendras at Ramban and Kishtwar today, all districts of Jammu Division now have functional KVKs dedicated towards conducting quality research and ensuring extension services, the Lt Governor observed.
Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Production Department highlightedon the ways and strategy for holistic development of Agriculture and allied sector and transforming the lives of farmers with skill development and other dedicated initiatives.
In his welcome address, Prof. J.P. Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, SKUAST-Jammu said that J&K is making strides in every field and features in national and international headlines for its unprecedented achievements.
Later, Progressive farmers, startups, and best community pond developers were also awarded during the programme.
Dr. Sumati Sharma, Former Additional Director, DRDO, New Delhi; Sh. Baldev Billawaria, Deputy Mayor, JMC; Dr. Rajbir Singh, Director ICAR-ATARI; Ms Avny Lavasa, DC Jammu; Major Manmohan Singh Virk; DDC members, HoDs, Faculty members, farmers from across the country and students were present on the occasion.
