Jammu, Apr 28: Asserting that Agriculture and Allied Sectors contribute over 18 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), representing Rs. 37600 crores per year and providing livelihood to more than 13 lakh families, Jammu and Kashmir Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture Production Department), Atal Dulloo said that the implementation of 29 major projects will transform agricultural economy of Jammu and Kashmir.
Notably, the Administrative Council under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had sanctioned the implementation of the 29 projects with an outlay of Rs 5013 crores over the next five years submitted by the Apex committee of experts headed by Dr Mangala Rai, former Director General, India Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
The apex committee was constituted by the UT Administration to identify the priority areas for interventions through improved policy and capital support and also to mitigate the challenges and to build a technology driven, sustainable and remunerative agro-economy.
“Over past decades, the agriculture and allied sectors in Jammu and Kashmir have been the mainstay of the rural economy however, the UT has been following a mere subsistence type of agriculture which has increasingly been facing the challenges of low productivity, shrinking farmer margins, unsustainability, climate change and lack of competitiveness when compared to produce from within and outside the country,” ACS Dulloo said.
