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| Agriculture Department's inefficiency mars vegetable production | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Oct 28: But for Agriculture Department's inefficiency and lethargy, vegetable production in Kashmir would have reached its zenith by now. According to official figures Valley exports vegetables worth Rs 75 Crore annually to North Indian states. These figures were furnished by the government a decade ago. The official press release that gave the data also stated that the production could be doubled if growers are given proper tips every now and then.
Ten years down lane, the production has not shown any significant increase. While other departments of the government have to accept responsibility for their failure to prevent construction on land meant for agriculture, the concerned department's lethargy and inefficiency cannot, rather should not go un-noticed.
The growers work hard in their fields to ensure adequate supply of vegetables from June to October. This is the time when North India faces acute shortage of vegetables. Technical know how, supply of high quality seeds and modern methods of farming would, according to the experts, double the vegetable production and thus earn the state a revenue of RS 150 crores annually.
A grower preferring anonymity lashed out at the Agriculture Department for failing the growers. "The department gets huge funds for agriculture inputs. However, the benefits do not always reach the growers. The mechanism is so cumbersome that the grower prefers to go to the field rather than to the department. A grower has to first establish that he is a farmer. He has to go to revenue officials and get the revenue records. This takes more than a week. Then the grower has to go to the bank to get a bank draft in favour of the department for the support he needs. Of course the department also compensates the farmer but normally it takes more than a month."
The growers also expressed dismay over functioning of the director. "The Vigilance Organization has several cases against him. He was the in charge joint director but to utter surprise of the growers he was made the in charge director as well", they said.
The Agriculture Assistants, growers said, rarely go to their respective blocks. "Many of them work as LIC agents. How can they give technical advice to the growers", they questioned. The growers have sought Chief Minister's intervention.
The director in a bid to appease the Chief Minister issued full page advertisements to local dailies recently to highlight his `achievement' of getting 30,000 farmers to the Baramulla Kissan Mela. The claim was strongly contested by the people.
Repeated attempts to contact the officials of the concerned department went in vain. |
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