EArly Times Report
Jammu, Nov 21: Five days long Krishak Mela 2022 which was organized at SKUAST-Jammu successfully concluded today on 21.11.2022. During the concluding day, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta IAS, Chief Secretary, Union Territory of J&K graced the occasion and interacted with farmers, entrepreneurs, startups and the common visitors in the Mela Ground. He appreciated the efforts of the university for organizing such a mega event which was a mix of ideas, knowledge, innovation and entertainment. During his address, he was optimistic that in the coming years SKUAST-Jammu will be one of the leading and premier agricultural institution of the country. He termed the mela as youthful live mela with active involvement of students not only from the SKUAST-Jammu but from the nearby colleges and schools. He stressed upon the need for convergence between academia and farmers and also appealed to the students and scientists for taking the technology generated in the laboratory to the farmer’s field. He motivated the farmers’ to adopt technologies generated by the university to increase their income. He informed the house that the target of rejuvenating 75 ponds in every district has been successfully achieved in a record time. He felicitated the panchayats which have rejuvenated the community ponds of their area and also to the best maintained lawns, parks and roof gardens of Jammu. Barbi panchayat of Jammu district, Smailpur panchayat of Samba district, Gara panchayat of Kathua district and Mari panchayat of Reasi/ Udhampur district were adjudged best in the category of community ponds. Graint, Kiank Jagir of Jammu; Badhori and Patti of Samba; Merath and Rasoh of Kathua; Lehnu and Panthal of Reasi/ Udhampur were also awarded by the Chief Secretary, J&K UT.
Atal Dulloo IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Financial Commissioner, Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Department also graced the occasion and congratulated Vice Chancellor, Prof. J. P. Sharma for successfull completion of mela as it was an amalgamation of diverse institutes, universities, development departments, banks, NABARD, schools, colleges etc. who exhibited their technologies and products to the visitors including farmers. He expressed happiness that this mela was an ideal platform for the startups, FPOs, SHGs to showcase their products and make inroads into the general public. He appealed to the scientists to formulate their research in such a way that the farmers get benefit from them and sustain their livelihood through meticulous adoption of these technologies. He also mentioned that during the recent apex committee meeting, it has been decided that a pool of researchers will be constituted and the Post Graduate students of the University shall be encouraged to serve farming community and to encourage them they will be paid stipend for such activities and services. He informed that Kisan Khidmat Centers are actively instrumental in the UT for providing all type of services and technical support to the farmers. He hoped that in the near future these will serve as one stop shop for the farming community. He congratulated Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-Jammu under whose dynamic leadership, SKUAST-Jammu excelled in the last few years and have showed phenomenal growth in in all the aspects.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. J. P. Sharma, Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-Jammu while expressing his satisfaction and happiness on the successful completion of 5 days long Krishak Mela congratulated all the farmers, agri-preneurs, NGO’s, government departments, KVK’s, research stations, startups, different divisions of the University, private companies etc. for their active participation in Krishak Mela 2022. He informed the house that during the five days long mela, products and technologies were displayed on 265 stalls and 14,000 visitors attended the mela. Dog show in which 90 entries were received was the attraction centre. Pagri competition was held during the mela in which the skill of tying dogri pagri was displayed by the participants. He termed this mela as SAB KA MELA SAB KE LIYE MELA.
Dr. M.J. Khan, Chairman, Indian Chamber of Food and Agriculture was of the view that J&K is witnessing transformation and agriculture sector is the main player behind this transformation. He apprised the house that as per ADB report, India shall be the biggest global economy by 2050.Dr. Khan also appealed to the farmers and entrepreneurs of Jammu and Kashmir UT to avail the opportunities available at national level.
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