2nd UT Level Apex Committee, Technical Working Group meeting held at SKUAST, Jammu

JAMMU, March 3: The second Union Territory Level Apex Committee and Technical Working Group (UTLAC & TWG) meeting was held at SKUAST, Jammu under the chairmanship of Former DG, ICAR and Secretary DARE, Dr. Mangla Rai.

The Agriculture Production Department, J&K, in collaboration with SKUAST Jammu and SKUAST Kashmir has planned to implement the Holistic Agriculture Development Plan (HADP) with a mission mode for transformation and inclusive development of agriculture and allied sectors across Jammu and Kashmir.

During the meeting, Dr. Mangla Rai took an exhaustive review of export promotion plan and discussed the ratification with other members of the Apex Committee and experts who presented the plan for different commodities. He assessed the development, monitoring and implementation of export plan for completion of each component of the plan. The plan after ratification shall construe an integral part of the IFAD project.

A threadbare discussion was held among the experts and scientists wherein export policy proposal for various commodities were presented and ratified. A broad outline of all the said proposals was discussed in detail for framing a proposal keeping in mind both short term and long term goals by identifying issues, analysis based data and solutions also thereof.

The goal of the committee is to provide facilities and give boost to export of various commodities of J&K UT. The approach of Comprehensive Agriculture Policy is farmer centric enabling greater farmer participation in policies and ensuring that their valuable suggestions are taken into account in decision making.

The Holistic Agriculture Development Plan (HADP) has already identified 29 projects aiming at complete transformation of agriculture in Jammu & Kashmir by reaching out to 13 lakh farmer households and 2.9 lakh marginal farmers. To facilitate the initiative, the Agriculture Production Department in consultation with SKUAST-Jammu and SKUAST-Kashmir is meticulously planning, making milestones and preparing targets for export plan.

During the meeting, it was discussed to develop robust cold chain supply system and logistics in J&K. The committee also recommended to conduct baseline survey of villages where the holistic development project will be implemented.

The meeting was attended by Dr. P K Joshi, Secretary, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture Production Department, Dr. Nazir Ahmad Ganai, Vice Chancellor, SKUAST J&K, officers of SKUAST Kashmir and SKUAST Jammu and officers of line departments.

Vote of thanks was presented by Dr. S.K. Gupta, Registrar, SKUAST-Jammu.