Srinagar/ 16-06-2021/ Director Agriculture Kashmir Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal today reviewed the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in Anantnag, Udhampur, Jammu and Samba Districts of union territory of Jammu and Kashmir for a period of three years. In this virtual meeting Director Agriculture Kashmir who is also the Mission Director of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana highlighted the importance of implementation of this flagship program. He said the main purpose of this Yojna is to ensure economic security to the farmers by means of crop insurance to coop-up with the situations arising out of losses incurred to the crops as a result of crop failures or damage to the crops due to natural calamities.

While interacting with the stakeholders Director Agriculture said that Departments prime objective is to ensure that farmers concerns are addressed and their financial security is ensured in every respect of implementation of the said scheme. Director Agriculture asked the participants that the present pandemic has changed the dimensions of all the sectors and therefore the impact on the farming community should also be taken into consideration while finalizing the modalities and implementation of this scheme.

The meeting was attended by the Joint Director Agriculture Extension Mohammad Qasim Gani, representatives of different insurance companies and other senior officers of the Department.

Later on Director Agriculture Kashmir visited Lavender Extraction Plant Lalmandi, Srinagar where he interacted with the technical experts of the Plant. On this occasion, Director Agriculture said that Department is working on a proposal by virtue of which the steps are taken to attract educated youth towards the specialized agriculture activities like the cultivation of aromatic plants, Floriculture, where the extraction of Lavender Oil has shown a great scope of generating employment opportunities. He asked the concerned officers and technical staff of the extraction unit to adopt latest technologies in the field of oil extraction so that this enterprise could become more and more remunerative.

During the visit Floriculture Development Officer Fida Iqbal briefed Director Agriculture about the scheme and said that one quintal of lavender biomass produces between 850 grams to 1100 grams of essential oil depending on the quality of the biomass.