In its bid to change the face of agriculture through environment-friendly farming practices in India’s Jammu and Kashmir, the union territory government has introduced Kashmiri peasants to liquid nano urea to enhance crop yield, protect crops from seasonal damage and maintain soil quality. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday flagged off virtually the first consignment of Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO)-developed what is claimed to be the world’s first liquid nano urea from Kalol area of Gujarat.

Jammu and Kashmir will receive 15,000 bottles of liquid nano urea – farmers of Jammu and Kashmir divisions getting 7500 bottles each - equivalent to 675 metric tonnes of conventional urea.

On the financial aspects of the new initiative, Sinha observed that liquid nano urea, being cheaper, will subsequently reduce farming cost in the union territory where 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture for livelihood.

He said efforts were on to increase the productivity of 60,000 hectares of Basmati agricultural land, for which farmers are being given good quality seeds at cheaper rates.

"In current fiscal, at least 750,000 farmers would be provided good seeds for which Rs 16 crore has been set aside,” he said.

The government would extend facilities like harvesting, management and processing to the farmers and provide linkages for their products to national and international markets.

To reform the horticulture sector, the administration has signed a Rs 1700 crore deal with NAFED for cultivating 5500 hectares of high-density apple, walnut, mango and Litchi in the next five years.

Three cold storage clusters will be set up at Kathua, North Kashmir and South Kashmir by pumping in Rs 500 crore.

Geographical Indication (GI) tagging of regional products is being done to empower the farmers through effective marketing of their products.

The world market was dominated by the Iranian saffron, but now Kashmir’s saffron is making its mark in the global market, remarked the Lt Governor.

Underscoring the reform measures, Sinha said the focus was on increasing farmers’ income and providing employment to more youths.

Agricultural universities of Jammu and Kashmir are being roped in for promoting food processing units and agriculture-related start-ups.

To take technology to the farm fields, machinery worth Rs 65 crore will be given to identified 30,000 farmers, besides providing modern irrigation facilities to 25,000 peasants by spending Rs 91 crore.

Further, Rs 26 crore has been earmarked to give state-of-the-art training to around 35,000 farmers for implementing new experiments in tune with the changing environment.

(SAM)