ANANTNAG: Special attention is required in the Agriculture and Horticulture sectors, which is the back-bone of the economy in the district. The district has a yearly income of Rs. 500 crores from Horticulture sector only. This was stated by District Development Commissioner Anantnag, Mr. Tasaduq Jeelani at a meeting held today to review the achievements made under these sectors.
The meeting was attended by Joint Director and Chief Planning Officer Anantnag, District Agriculture Officer, Chief Horticulture Officer, Horticulture Development Officers and Sub-Divisional Agriculture Officers of Dooru, Shangus and Pahalgam.
The Chief Horticulture Officer Anantnag informed the meeting about the achievements made under the sector and said that against an outlay of Rs. 6.40 lakhs for the year 2014-15 under District Plan, an expenditure of Rs. 3.20 lakhs has been made in full against the released amount of Rs. 3.20 lakhs on Farm mechanization.
Under Centrally Sponsored Scheme of MIDH, an amount of Rs. 1.01 crore was made available which was expended in full on plantation, pack houses, regulation of old and snail orchards, creation of water sources and tour of farmers. As many as 2 farmer groups were sent on tour outside the State, 50 tour programmes were conducted in the State and 3 departmental Nurseries were covered under the MIDH scheme also.
While giving the details of the achievements under Agriculture sector, the District Agriculture Officer informed that under District sector against the allocation of Rs. 6.57 lakhs and released amount of Rs.3.37 lakhs has been booked in full on distribution of PP. Machinery on 50 percent subsidy maximum upto Rs. 10,000/- per unit for 8 cases, blast control measures, mushroom development, farmers training camps, distribution of kits among Bee keepers on 50 percent subsidy were provided.
In addition, for construction of R. Walls under soil conservation, Rs. 0.97 lakhs out of the released amount of Rs. 1.12 lakhs in 10 cases. Under National Mission on oil seeds and oil palm, a centrally sponsored scheme, Rs. 72,000/- was spent on the training of 3 batches of 30 farmers for two days and Rs.20,000/- was spent on 50 percent cost limited to Rs. 10,000/- for small, marginal, ST, SC, form women, FPO etc. for 2 cases.
Under RKVY, 6 power tillers on 50 % subsidy cost maximum to Rs.0.75 lakhs per unit were booked for 6 beneficiaries, 40 IP sets for the maximum subsidy for Rs. 0.10 lakhs per unit for 40 beneficiaries stand booked. An allocation of Rs. 22.12 lakhs has been made available under RKVY for district Anantnag and the subsidy cost for purchase of machinery has been booked and the machinery will be made available to the farmers by end of fiscal.
The District Development Commissioner asked the officers to prepare projects in consultation with experts under Agriculture and Horticulture sectors for the karevas of Khirm, Shangus, Pahalgam, Dooru and Kokernag belts.