J&K Govt Allocates Rs 3156 Crores to Agriculture and Allied Sectors in Budget 2023-34

In the budget for 2023-24, Rs 3156 crore has been allocated for these vital sectors for the creation of an authorized environment to transform J&K agriculture and allied sectors to expand farmers’ income, assure food security and boost UT's economic growth.

Over the next 5 years, a Comprehensive Agriculture Development Plan has been rolled out with 29 proposed projects worth an outlay of Rs 5012 crore to be executed.

An official said that the novel initiative will create additional job opportunities for 2,87,910 people in agriculture, horticulture and allied sectors besides 18,861 new business enterprises will be generated over the next five years.

The government will create a 67000 Metric tons CA Storage Capacity under the driven projects enabling the farmers to store their yield for better returns.

Jammu and Kashmir’s government is motivating and assisting private players to set up cold storage (CA) amenities to minimize post-harvest losses by raising the shelf life of several agriculture and horticulture products, as well as to address the matter of despairing crop sales by farmers.

The government also took various concrete steps to raise agriculture and horticulture production besides enhancing crop quality with a special emphasis on post-harvesting management infrastructure, basically in the private sector.

The UT administration as part of HADP has launched a Rs 46.65 crores `Promotion of Beekeeping’ project to triple honey production over the next 5 years.

Examining and traceability will be done through GI labs besides 20 Custom Hiring Centers (CHCs) will also be set up for the extended pollination amenities. An official also said, “Jammu and Kashmir will have a full-fledged center of excellence for capacity building, consistency, and post-harvest management.”

Under the project, the value addition of honey is also being proposed coupled with the effective growth of the bee sector using native honey bees.

The UT government has approved Rs. 176 crore projects to augment fish production to make fish farming a prospering sector. The project involves importing genetically improved fish seed, improving existing hatcheries and fish rearing units, through R&D introducing species diversity in aquaculture and commercializing trout and carp fish production by adopting modern technologies such as Bifolio and RAS and is determined to double trout and carp production over the next 5 years.

Likewise, in J&K, dairy is the biggest element of livestock husbandry and plays a pivotal role in sustaining agriculture income and acts as a growth engine for agriculture, and allied sectors.

The milk production is expected to reach 45 Lakh MTs from 25 Lakh MTs over the next 5 years and will be achieved through a range of measures including the expansion of breeding coverage and expanding the per animal productivity.

Under the HADP project, one of the key components of the Dairy is to expand the per-animal productivity from 2400 liters to 4300 liters, which is a significant rise. This will be acquired through a range of interventions including the expansion of Artificial Insemination (AI) centers from 1389 to 2189.