Jammu, December 21 (Scoop News) – The Governor, N. N. Vohra said that forestry, agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, fisheries, animal husbandry, poultry farming, mushroom cultivation, bee keeping and all other allied sectors have a vast scope for growth in Jammu & Kashmir State and there is no reason whatsoever for the Farm Universities and the concerned State Government departments not being able to achieve the much needed break through for achieving significant surpluses in each of the aforesaid areas.
The Governor was addressing the 5th Council Meeting of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST), Jammu.
He emphasized the need for evolving well considered short and long-term plans for strengthening teaching, research and extension activities of the Agricultural Universities in the State and ensuring their future growth as the centers of excellence. He also laid stress on urgently putting in place an effective mechanism for closely monitoring the various activities of these varsities to secure maximum agricultural production in the State.
The Governor, who is the Chancellor of the University, chairing the meeting, referred to the dire need for seed replacement of various crops on a time-bound and planned basis, observing that achieving a high replacement rate is crucial to both improving quality and achieving higher levels of productivity and production.
Referring to the role of Krishi Vigyan Kendras in boosting agriculture production, the Governor observed that these have to function as nerve centres for giving the required boost to the agriculture and allied sectors. Similarly, he laid emphasis on the need for making available the latest technical know-how and technology to the farmers at their doorsteps for achieving the desired results. He said that this could be best done by adopting a multi-disciplinary approach and forging close synergy between the farm universities and the agriculture extension agencies of the government.
The Governor advised the Vice Chancellors of both the Agricultural Universities to conduct a follow up census to assess the number of their agriculture graduates and postgraduates who had found placements in the job market. They should also assess the levels and number of trained human resource required in the next 15 to 20 years, so that the Universities could grow on a predetermined path at the desired pace.
The Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir, emphasized the need for attracting large investment in the agriculture and allied sectors for creating employment avenues for the youth of the State, generating wealth and boosting agri-production. He said that both the agricultural universities in the State could organize seminars by associating experts to evolve a roadmap for achieving the twin objectives of creating employment opportunities and attaining self-sufficiency in agri-production. In this connection, he put forth several suggestions.
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Dr. B. Mishra, in his power point presentation, gave details of the academic, research and extension activities of the SKUAST, Jammu. He dwelt on the initiatives taken by the varsity for developing new varieties of seeds of various crops and improvement and multiplication of the existing seed varieties.
The Vice Chancellor, SKUAST, Kashmir, Dr. Tej Partap, Vice Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Dr. Manjit Singh Kang, Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production, M. I. Khandey, Principal Secretary to the Governor, R. K. Goyal, Dr. A. R. Trag and Registrar, SKUAST, Jammu, Dr. B. B. Gupta participated in the meeting.