Srinagar, May 20: Ahead of the G20 Summit events in Kashmir, the Agriculture Department Kashmir is all set to showcase different agriculture products including saffron, honey and other locally grown vegetables to the delegates at several venues, officials said.
Suhail Inamullah, Technical Officer to Directorate of Agriculture Kashmir said agriculture and allied being primary sectors constitute considerably towards economic well-being of Jammu and Kashmir.
“We will be showcasing agriculture tourism for G20 Summit delegates. We will also showcase world-renowned agricultural produce like saffron, honey, traditional rice variety Mushq budij and other exotic vegetables which are famous,” he said.
The agriculture department will also install stalls at the venues where the G20 delegates are scheduled to visit and will display different products.
“We are also trying to create market linkages so that farmers are benefited at large. Every intervention depends on marketing. We want to strengthen the market linkages so that the farmers of this part of the land reap the benefits of these global events,” said Suhail.
“We have already participated in national level events and received first prize in February 2023. One of the Farmer Producer Organization for saffron was also awarded,” he said.
The Technical Officer said the department is doing the national level market linkages and G20 Summit is an excellent and appropriate platform by which they can showcase the agriculture produce at the global level.
Suhail also said that over the past six to seven years, there has been a paradigm shift and the agriculture sector has changed a lot with farmers reaping success of their produce.
“Earlier, people would use the agricultural produce for home consumption only and it was commodity-based but now it is product based. Our climatic conditions are also beneficial for many such crops,” he said.
He said honey, red chilli, maize and paddy has the potential to make it to the international market and that is the strength of Kashmir agriculture which needs to be harnessed further.
“Our local rice variety is sweet compared to that of other places. Our rice has good starch content because of hot days and cold nights. We need to work more on it. We will have a monopoly over the world agriculture market . Our quality is good and farmers can earn good revenue,” he said.
“This approach needs to be replicated in other areas also on the basis of site-specific crop production. These crops would be branded as Kashmir Fresh to tap the available potential of the open markets all over the world,” he said.
Suhail also said that farmers are also given awareness about Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) scheme which is an insurance service for farmers for their yields.
He said that under the banner of PMFBY, there would be awareness programs in all 20 districts and registrations have been started. “We request the farmers to take benefit of the scheme and register for the insurance cover,” he said.
J&K has a distinct geographical outlook having two agro-climatic zones and each zone has its own particular climatic character that describes its cropping pattern, productivity, production etc.
J&K’s economy is predominantly agriculture dependent and nearly 70 percent of the population is directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural and allied occupations, which makes the UT dependent on agriculture which is based on Small Land Holdings.
The Department of Agriculture, Kashmir envisages making Agriculture a Sustainable & Remunerative economic activity for farmers in the present regime of the World Trade Organization (WTO) wherein open market scenario is prevalent across the world.
