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| From "Lab to field" Mir's new mantra for raising foodgrain production | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 6: After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said,nearly 15 months ago,that the agricultural economy of Jammu and Kashmir was not in a good shape, the Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir, has revised his priorities so as to ensure increase in the foograins production in order to reduce Jammu Kashmir state's dependence on heavy import of rice and wheat.
Mir has started galvanising field officers of his department and the scientists of the two universities of agricultural sciences and technology to find an answer to the state's low productivity, poor investment in the field of agriculture besides a large deficits in the production of cereals, oilseeds, pulses and vegetables.
Mir continues to be worried over the Prime Ministee's observation when he stated that " it is a fact that the agricultural economy of Jammu and Kashmir, on which about 70 per cent of the population is dependent, is not in very a good shape because each of the three regions of the State present challenges of diverse topography and agro-ecosystems."
The Minister for agriculture is keen to reduce the state's dependence on heavy import of foodgrains from Punjab, Haryana and other states. Mir seems to be committed on reducing the foodgrains imports and says that during the last over seven years the import figure has increased from over five lakh metric tonnes in 2002-2003 to over eight lakh metric tonnes in 2009-2010.
Mir has one satisfaction. He says during the last two years foograin production in Jammu and Kashmir has started increasing gradually.He believes that bringing the state out of the mono-cropping culture would result in marked decrease in foodgrain imports.He said that since last year he has pulled field experts of his department and the scientists of the two agricultural universities out of slumber.The result of their coordinated efforts has been that more and more farmers were taking to the double cropping practices.
The Minister aims at introducing multi-cropping practices in those areas where the land is highly fertile and has assured irrigation facilities.
Mir has framed a new policy under which scientists and the two agricultural universities and the field experts of the Department of agriculture were to coordinate their efforts for not only bringing but in implementing the new farming technologies developed by the scientists in the laboratories in the two universities.
"Lab to field" is the new policy framed by Mir under which pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest technologies evolved by the scientists were to be demonstrated to the far mers so that they were able to implement those in order to ensure increased production.
Farmers were to be assisted in sowing new andd high yielding rice,maize and wheat seeds. Mir says he does not want the scientists to keep their research programmes confined to the four walls of the laboratories.
Mir also plans to frame a policy under which officers and experts of his Department visit those states,which are surplus in wheat and rice, in order to learn the new techniques which farmers in those states had adopted in raising the foodgrain production. At present the Minister is keen to help the state in achieving self-sufficiency in foodgrains and for this the policy restricting conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes has to be framed and implemented strictly.
Mir says that the challenge before policy-makers and agriculture scientists is to evolve appropriate area-specific strategies for increasing production and employment. |
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