Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday directed the agriculture universities to prepare a strategy for diversification, value addition, supply chain management, and profitable market linkage for small and marginal farmers.

Sinha was addressing the inaugural session of the 6th J&K Agricultural Science Congress on “Diversification of Agriculture for Self-Reliant Mountain Agro-Ecology” here.

He said the exchange of ideas and discussions among the experts on critical aspects of alternative agriculture systems, digital agriculture, start-up culture, advanced veterinary science, innovation, and data sciences will help in addressing the challenges and exploring opportunities in sustainable agriculture.

“J&K has diverse agro-climatic zones which provide ample scope of adopting farm level diversifications. With this scientific solution, we can mitigate the impact of climate change and will be able to generate higher farm revenue from the same piece of land,” the Lt Governor said.

He made certain suggestions to improve productivity and make the agriculture and allied sectors more lucrative for farmers and stakeholders.

He advised to chalk out an effective scientific strategy for organic and integrated farming. “Our farmers should be provided necessary handholding and guidance on Monoculture farming so that they could avail the benefits of this ‘Farming of Future’,” he said.

The Lt Governor emphasised increasing awareness and dissemination of information on the benefits of crop rotation, digitisation, and precision farming tools among the farmers.

He also recommended the implementation of a Rural Action Plan focused on innovation, technological advances, and digital agriculture to make rural communities accessible to the key flagship areas of the agriculture and allied sectors.

The Lt Governor shared various progressive steps taken by the government, including the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP), high-density plantation, GI tags for niche products, agri-entrepreneurship, new Farmers’ Producers Organisations and developing educational institutions as a technical hub to support farmers.

“J&K is the biggest producer of apple in the country. Last year, our annual production was 75% of the country’s total production. In the last 3 years, 2.44 lakh metric tonnes of CA storage additional capacity have been added and we are aiming to add similar capacity in the next 6 months,” the Lt Governor said.

Dr BN Tripathi, Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-Jammu, emphasised the importance of diversification of agriculture and its potential in attaining food and livelihood security.

On the occasion, J&K Science, Technology & Innovation Council, Department of Science & Technology, handed over a cheque for Rs 1.45 crore as financial assistance to SKUAST-Jammu for R&D projects under the Sponsored Research & Extension Programme scheme.

Prof Nazir Ahmad Ganai, Vice-Chancellor SKUAST-Kashmir; Saurabh Bhagat, Commissioner/Secretary, Science & Technology Department; senior Officers of UT Administration and SKUAST, Agriculture scientists, scholars, and students were present.