Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma on Saturday directed officials of KVK (Krishi Vigyan Kendra) and ATMA (Agriculture Technology Management Agency) to enhance co-operation speed up processes in agriculture sector. In a meeting convened to achieve scheme targets of financial year 2016-17, she said officials to go to the farmers and work with them. She was apparently unhappy with a huge gap between targets and achievements, even after having 24 KVKs in State.
In a meeting which was also attended by Nitin Madan Kulkarni, Secretary, Agriculture Department, Jata Shankar Choudhary, Director, Agriculture Department, VC, BAU and other officials, Verma said KVK officials to prepare village wise profiling of arable land and to start a campaign with roadmap for scheme implementation. She also directed to make Farmers Card on the pattern of SOIl Health Card and said KVK officials to ensure that more and more agricultural land is covered under “ARYA” scheme.
While reviewing implementation of Beej Gram Yojna, the CS directed to associate two youths with the help of ATMA as KRISHI MITRA from each village by June 10 and to ensure their training by June 15 in a special workshop, so that they can encourage farmers on village level for increase production capacity and set up Beej Gram.
Formation of 20-25 Beej Grams with at least 5 of pulses was also directed during the meeting. The CS asked KVK to mark the fertile land of their area and explore the land which can be made ready for double crop. She directed officials to survey the impact of agri-exibitions related to farmers.
There are around 40 lakh farmers in the State. During implementation of crop insurance, verification of the beneficiaries was decided in order to check forgery. Mukhiya’s CO and bankers have been advised to verify the documents.
It was also decided in the meeting that District Agriculture officers will be the controlling authority to check black marketing of fertilizer. She directed officials to release licenses to lAMPS and PACS for fertilizer to check black marketing. The CS directed the officials to ensure proper block wise distribution of fertilizer and bank wise verification of KCC distribution.