While addressing the Joint Session of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Indian Agricultural Universities Association at Shalimar Campus of SKUAST-Kashmir, Lieutenant Governor said the new innovation in Agricultural science and technology has been continuously evolving and Agri 4.0 technology, its application and research is breaching new frontiers.
J&K’s Agriculture and allied sectors powered by the Holistic Agriculture Development Program, he said, are offering multi-fold growth opportunities to our farmers and agri-entrepreneurs.
He said agricultural universities with their futuristic and courageous initiatives are leading the path of dynamic economic growth, excellent collaboration and increasing global cooperation to redefine agricultural education and skill development.
Given its substantial contribution to the total GDP, Agriculture is an important sector of the economy. Jammu and Kashmir’s economy is mainly dependent on it as almost 70% of the population is directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural and allied activities.
With the endeavor to double the contribution of Agri-GDP in next five years from $4 billion to $8 billion, the government constituted UT Level Apex Committee (UTLAC) for framing a “comprehensive Agriculture Policy” for holistic development of farm and allied sectors in J&K.
At least 29 projects, approved by the Apex Committee for Holistic Development of Agriculture and Allied sectors, are being implemented in Jammu and Kashmir.
The plan worth Rs 5013 crores is tipped to bring a significant change in the lives of the huge population linked with the farming sector in J&K.
Lately, the government has put a lot of focus on agriculture and the allied sector. In fact, the Lieutenant Governor said that this decade in the agriculture and horticulture sector belongs to J&K. He also said that policies through ‘holistic development’ plan have laid the foundations for a ‘sea change’ in the economic growth of J&K.
The government recently stressed that its effort is to make sub-tropical fruit cultivation a multi-faceted business by increasing efficiency of orchards with the help of various interventions like setting up new nurseries and new plant material testing labs.
The government must continue to focus on technology as penetration of the latter in the farm sector is happening at multiple levels across the globe including in many parts of India. It is expected these technologies interventions will help increase crop yield, bring stability in production, and make crops resistant to pests and ecological changes. Improvement in the post-harvesting shelf life to a large extent is also expected.
