Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Wednesday said that Jammu and Kashmir was heading for a revolution in agriculture and allied sectors.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that announcing three new schemes – Holistic Development of Agriculture and Allied Sectors, Aspirational Towns Development Programme, and Aspirational Panchayat Development Programme, the LG said: “Having gone through the contents of the projects that have been cleared by the committee and their expected outputs and outcomes, I am confident that a new revolution in the agriculture and allied sectors of J&K is on the anvil. J&K is determined to move forward to touch new heights of success.”
The Administrative Council, chaired by the LG, has approved these projects.
Holistic Development of Agriculture and Allied Sectors
In July this year the J&K administration constituted an Apex Committee for the Holistic Development of Agriculture and Allied Sectors for which leading luminaries like former DG ICAR Mangala Rai as its chairman and CEO NRAA Ashok Dalwai apart from other well known figures in the field of agriculture, planning, statistics and administration were invited.
The committee working in a mission mode came with a comprehensive plan in the form of 29 projects covering all the sectors within the ambit of APD in a record time of five months.
The unique thing about these projects is not only that they have been prepared by some of the finest brains in the country but also the fact that their formulation was undertaken in a consultative mode – ensuring that the opinion of all stakeholders including our farmers are taken onboard.
The projects which have now been approved by the Administrative Council and having an outlay of Rs 5013 crore over the next five years would transform the agriculture economy of J&K putting it on a new trajectory of growth, doubling the output of the sectors, boosting exports and making the sectors sustainable and commercially viable.
This would herald a new phase of farmer prosperity and rural livelihood security in J&K.
These 29 projects will almost double the output of the sectors, boosting exports and making the sectors sustainable and commercially viable.
These gains would be equitable, reaching the last person in the pyramid and ecologically sustainable through efficient use of bio-resources for food, feed and industry.
The agricultural output which stands at Rs 37600 crores would increase by over Rs 28,142 crore to reach more than Rs 65,700 crore per year, with a resultant increment in sectoral growth rate to 11 percent.
The interventions would create employment opportunities for over 2.8 lakh youth and establish around 19,000 enterprises.
More than 2.5 lakh persons would be skilled in various agri-enterprises ranging from seed production, precision farming of vegetables, bee-rearing, cocoon production, mushroom farming, integrated and organic agriculture, high-density fruit farming to processing, dairying, sheep and poultry farming as well as fodder production.