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Tours tribal
habitations, seeks 100% KCC coverage of dairy farmers
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Jammu: Principal Secretary, Animal/ Sheep Husbandry & Fisheries
departments, Navin Kumar Choudhary reviewed performance of the Animal Husbandry
department under various schemes at a meeting held here the other day.
The meeting was attended by Director
Animal Husbandry Jammu, Ms Vivek Sharma; Mission Director Dairy development
J&K, Pankaj Katoch; Director Planning Animal/Sheep Husbandry deptt; Joint Director Farms; Joint Director Poultry
& Chief Animal Husbandry Officers of Jammu division.
The Director Animal Husbandry
Kashmir Ms. Purnima Mittal and other Kashmir based officers attended the
meeting through video conferencing.
The Principal Secretary laid
stress on the enrollment of 100% farmers under KCC & implementation of Atma
Nirbhar Bharat for doubling of farmers’ income.
He also exhorted upon the
officers to achieve the assigned targets in full and remain connected with the
farming community.
Later, the Principal Secretary
conducted an extensive tour of various field centers and interacted with the
dairy & poultry farmers.
He visited Cattle &
Buffalo Breeding farm of A.H. Department at Pouni-Chek, which is spread over an
area of about 144-Kanals, mainly used for Cattle & Buffalo breeding &
for fodder production. He took a round of the farm premises and
appreciated the practices being adopted
for rearing & management of Sahiwal cattle & Murrah Buffalo in the said
farm.
Afterwards, he visited some
schedule tribe pockets in the area and took first hand appraisal about the
impact of various departmental activities/ schemes as well as the difficulties
being faced by them. During the interaction with these farmers, Principal
Secretary informed them about the benefits of KCC Dairy scheme & directed
the concerned field functionaries to visit their habitations for undertaking
enrolment exercise on a mission mode. The farmers urged Principal Secretary to take notice of
government rates fixed for milk selling, which they said is not in tune
with the production costs thereby jeopardizing the interests of the farming
community. The Principal Secretary assured them early redressal in this regard.
The Principal Secretary also
visited a prominent dairy in Mandal Block of Jammu district and interacted with
the progressive dairy farmers of the area. He laid emphasis on setting up of
milk processing plants; creation of FPOs in order to derive maximum benefits
out of the recently launched “Integrated Dairy Development Scheme”.
He also made them aware about
the value addition of milk and advised them to set up milk vending machines in
their areas of operation for better returns. He also deliberated upon the issue
of huge imports of milk & milk products, poultry & feed into the state
and exhorted upon these progressive farmers to set up huge dairy farms and make
state self sufficient.
During their discussion with
the visiting officers the dairy farmers highlighted the problem being faced by
them at Lakhanpur in the transportation of the dairy animals from the
neighbouring states.
Responding to the issue, Pr. Secretary issued on the spot directions
to the concerned department to frame SOP for addressing this issue immediately.
They also suggested that “cattle Mandis“ on the analogy of Punjab be created in
the J&K & also revise the ceiling on cost of animals under livestock
insurance scheme.
In the evening, he visited
horticulture nursery at Garhi Purkhoo & appreciated the working of the
horticulture Department.
On his last leg of tour, he
paid a visit to a private Poultry farm at Marh and was apprised of the various
challenges confronting the poultry industry. He exhorted upon the poultry
breeders to go for modernization of their farms in light of government’s latest
Poultry Policy.
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