Govt committed to proactively support farmers, exporters: Dulloo

Jammu, March 20: Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Agriculture Production Department, Atal Dulloo on Monday said the government is fully committed to exploring all possibilities to proactively and effectively support the farmers, FPOs, cooperatives, traders and exporter community of Jammu & Kashmir.
“Valuing over Rs 5000 crore projects have been conceptualized and meticulously prepared under Holistic Agriculture Development Programme embarked by the J&K UT,” he informed. “Agriculture Branding Centers, Rural Service and Business Hubs, Augmentation of CA Stores and Markets, Composting Plants, Creation of Market Intelligence Cells are some of the areas to be focused on in the stated project.”
Dulloo said that a massive capacity development program is underway to train and sensitize all the stakeholders in respect of the provisions of the projects.
The Department of Horticulture Planning & Marketing on Monday organized a mega export conclave at Jammu, which was participated by exporters from across the country dealing in the export of Agricultural and Horticultural produce.
The participants shared their rich experience and valuable inputs enabling J&K to further expand its export prospects. Various key agencies involved in Exports Promotion including APEDA, DGFT, Federation of Indian Exporters Organizations (FIEO), Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGC) and Indian Postal Department shared the mandatory requirements for a successful export trade besides policies and programs of the government.
Atal Dulloo, who chaired the conclave, elaborated on the current policy and government plans to evolve an export promotion policy for the betterment of the farmers and other stakeholders from Jammu & Kashmir. He said the government is expeditiously moving to widen its bucket of GI products and has already constituted an Apex committee headed by Dr. Mangla Rai for Export Promotion Roadmap for J&K and active consultations with all stakeholders in this regard are underway.
Vikas Sharma, Director Horticulture Planning and Marketing, in his welcome address, said that the department has taken up many steps to give a fillip to the marketing infrastructure in the region. The department has also organized Buyer-Seller Meets at Kolkata and Jammu in the recent past which benefitted the growers of the UT, he informed.
The participants from across the UT were very enthusiastic about the Export Conclave and some also matured the contracts with the exporters for the supply of their respective produce. They were of the view that “the initiative taken by the government to bring the buyers/exporters/traders from various locations at the farm gate of the growers/farmers of the UT shall definitely showcase our produce to national and international markets resulting in increased demand for our products and eventually boosting our rising economy”.