In a meeting held today under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production & Farmers Welfare Department, Navin Kumar Choudhary, the progress and implementation of ‘Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture in Rain-Fed Farming (Kandi) Areas of Jammu and Kashmir’ was discussed.
The meeting was attended by Chief General Manager, NABARD, R.K Srivastava; Director Ecology, Environment & Remote Sensing, Neelu Gera; Special Secretary, Forest Department, Amit Sharma; Director Agriculture, Jammu, Inderjeet; Director Agriculture, Kashmir, Manzoor Ahmad Qadiri; Deputy General Manager, NABARD, Anamika and several other officers of Forest, Agriculture departments and NABARD.
The Principal Secretary asked the officers to accelerate the implementation of the scheme so that the benefits reach to target population. He advised them to look for the ways and means to associate other stakeholders like Animal Husbandry department to implement several components of the scheme.
Navin further directed them to take prior preparatory action for implementing the scheme within the deadline. He asked both the departments and NABARD to hold the meeting of stakeholders every month so that all the bottlenecks are removed conveniently.
He impressed upon them to constitute a team of senior officers from all the departments and conduct joint inspections to see for any shortcomings.
Navin appreciated the progress made so far under the project in terms of assessment of vulnerability of cropping system in the UT, adoption of Integrated Farming System, enhancement of water security by bringing in water use efficiency in rain-fed farming conditions, capacity building of farmers on climate resilient sustainable agriculture practices, etc.He mentioned that there is a need to further strengthen the efforts in order to complete the remaining components of the project in time.
R K Srivastava, CGM NABARD emphasized the need to adopt climate resilient agricultural practices. He mentioned that fund allocated for the UT must be fully utilized in order to bring in the desired outcome of the project.
It was given in the meeting that the scheme is being implemented by the UT government in Budgam and Jammu districts. The project areas are Bhalwal block of Jammu district and Budgam block of Budgam district. The Department of Forest, Environment and Ecology J & K is the Nodal Agency for the project whereas the Department of Agriculture is the Executing Entity.
The National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) was established in August, 2015 to meet the cost of adaptation to climate change for the State and Union Territories of India that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
Later on Navin also reviewed the financial health of J&K State Cooperative Bank and the three District Central Cooperative Banks. He advised the banks to improve their functioning so as to serve their clients in an effective manner. He also advised Cooperative Department officials to carry out a survey of PACS in the UT for identifying viable/ potentially viable PACS.
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