Narendra Tomar visits J&K, emphasises on need for holistic development of agriculture

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on his visit to Jammu and Kashmir spoke on several factors concerning the agriculture sector in the Union Territory. Tomar who has been in J&K along with his two deputies, Kailash Choudhary and Shobha Karandlaje on Friday visited the "Sher-e-Kashmir" University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu and later laid the foundation stone of Gene Bank and Cold Storage facility at Mega Seed. 

Speaking on the matter, he emphasized the need for development in the agricultural sector of Jammu and Kashmir. He further also informed that the central government has been making efforts towards agriculture in India as it has already transferred Rs 1,58,000 crores to the bank accounts of around 11 lakh farmers in India under PM Modi's Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. Also, Rs 1,723 crore has been transferred to the farmers of J&K.  

Centre's initiative for agriculture in J&K

While speaking about the development initiatives by the Centre on Friday, Tomar stated that a procedure has been followed to fix the issue of Minimum Support Price (MSP) of agricultural produce which has been recommended by the Swaminathan Committee. 

"However, the MSP recently announced for Rabi crops is almost 100 per cent more than the cost of cultivation. The present budget of agriculture has also increased to Rs 1,23,000 crore which earlier stood at Rs 23,000 crore in 2014", he added.

Tomar further spoke about the role of the National Education Policy (NEP) that will help in strengthening agricultural education among farmers and will be soon distributed.

Lauding the central government, he appreciated the Centre's efforts for the formation of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations. 

Central Government's Outreach Programme II

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Narendra Tomar along with MoS MoS Kailash Choudhary and MoS Shobha Karandlaje has been on a visit to Jammu and Kashmir as a part of the Central Government's Public Outreach Programme. They are also said to take stock of the development ongoing in the union territory and further talk about the Centre's welfare measures and policies to be implemented over there. The nine-week-long public outreach program in Jammu and Kashmir started on Friday, September 10. 

(With ANI inputs)

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