 Early Times Report
Kathua, Feb 20: One day awareness programme on Futures Markets for farmers, PACS and other stakeholders was organized in Kathua by NABCONS. The programme was attended by Dr.Travinder Singh, Chief Horticulture Officer, Hans Raj Hans, Lead District Manager, Dr. Amrish Vaid, Programme Coordinator, KVK, Dr. Berjesh Ajrawat, SMS, KVK, Baldev Sharma, District Manager, NABARD, representatives of PACS, farmers and REZs of Agriculture department in Kathua district.
On this occasion, Aman Kalsotra, DDM, NABARD, Kathua explained the basic principle of hedging, speculation and arbitage. He dealt upon the issues of Indian farmers in general viz. traditional cropping pattern, dependencies on monsoon, irregular flow of credit, adathiya system, stocking infrastructure and marketing.
He asked the farmers to avoid cobweb syndrome by using futures prices as signal for cropping pattern. He dealt with issues pertaining to pre and post harvesting management.
He explained to them, how farm to table chain erodes farmers income realization in which farmers share is mere 30%, 15% is the share of village commission agent, 20% district commission agent, 15% of processor, 5% of wholesaler, retailer at 15% which reaches to customer at 100%. He asked them to work in tandem with the banks, open their accounts with bank, avail KCC and loans under investment credit, for improving their status. He also explained the concept of watershed and its management to farmers.
Travinder Singh, Chief Horticulture Officer informed the schemes related to Horticulture department. He asked the farmers to sow crops by determining price mechanism, understanding markets and risk associated with the crop grown. He informed about the different subsidy schemes available from the Horticulture Department particularly under RKVY, micro-irrigation and asked farmers to avail benefits of the same.
Hans Raj Hans, LDM, Kathua informed that the house that Annual Action Plan for the year 2014-15 is `834 crores of which priority sector target were at `471 crores. He shared necessity of forming JLGs by roping in landless farmers and share croppers and linking them with credit. He informed about different activities for which loan is available from banks in the district. He informed that the training needs are satisfied through SBI-RSETI, where the training of their choice can be provided to farmers.
Dr. Amrish Vaid, Programme Coordinator, KVK, Kathua gave a detailed presentation on Integrated approach on disease management in wheat crop, with special emphasis on yellow rust. He impressed upon the judicious use of insecticides and fungicides, to increase their farm income. He asked the progressive farmers to invest some part of their land holding towards creating orchards, apiculture, floriculture etc. so as to avail benefit from cash crops. He dealt on issues of elaborated upon healthy cropping practices and being tech savvy in today's context.
Dr. Berjesh Ajrawat, SMS, KVK briefed the farmers about latest agricultural practices being followed and how PACS can benefit from IT enabled services. He dealt on market led agriculture extension- problems and opportunities, wherein he elaborated upon the smart farming, market intelligence, use of latest implements in agriculture, soil nutrition, cropping pattern, crop rotation etc. |
