29 villages to be developed as model agriculture villages in Kashmir

Srinagar, Aug (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to develop 29 villages as model agriculture villages besides setting up a local Radio Station for promotion of various agriculture promotion programmes in the valley.

This information was given during the first meeting of the executive council of the State Agriculture Management and Extension Training Institute (SAMETI) held here, an official spokesman said.

SAMETI is an autonomous centrally sponsored institution aimed at reforming public sector extension to make it more farm friendly and organising need based training programmes of middle level and grass root level agriculture extension functionaries along with the improvement of their technical and management skills.

Speaking at the meeting the Minister of Agriculture, Cooperatives, Abdul Aziz Zargar said that constitution of SAMETI is the first organised and well conceived step to bring agriculture scientists, extension experts and NGOs under one umbrella to help farmers in increasing productivity.

He stressed for Strategic Research and Extension Plan (SREP) for each district.

The spokesman said decisions were taken to bring agriculture research and training at the doorsteps of farmers. For this purpose SAMETI has adopted about 29 villages of various districts of the Kashmir division.

The Minister also called for popularising bio-pesticides and organic fertilisers adding that annual fore casting of pest prevalence and its management strategy would go a long way to check losses to the agriculture sector.

The meeting also approved twenty capsule training programmes to be undertaken through SAMETI for integrated development of agriculture during the current financial year.

The Agriculture University, Kashmir would also sell its newly developed improved seeds and plant material directly to the farmers through KVKs and other university units.

The centre has approved setting up of a local Radio Station under the aegis of SAMETI for propagation of various agriculture promotion programmes through participatory mode of communication.

Mr Zargar asked the agriculture university and development departments to pool their resources to come up to the urges and expectations of the farming community.

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