Need to develop agro-based entrepreneurship to attract youth towards agriculture: Jitendra Singh

KATHUA, DECEMBER 01: A day long awareness campaign on Centrally Sponsored Schemes for agriculture was organized by Directorate of Field Publicity, Ministry Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, here today at Government Degree collage for Boys Kathua.

The campaign was aimed at spreading awareness among farmers of the area about various Centrally Sponsored Schemes viz. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna, Soil Health Card, Kissan Credit Card, Parampragat Krishi Vikas Yojna etc so that farmers are able to avail benefit of these schemes to double their income by the year 2022.

Union Minister of State in PMO and for Development of North Eastern region Dr. Jitendra Singh who was Chief guest on the occasion said that the adequate technical initiatives taken in the Agriculture sector would ensure increase the productivity and augment the economic profile of the farming community as envisaged by the Prime Minister Narinder  Modi.

Calling for a need to bring new prospective in the Agriculture Sector by promoting Agro based Entrepreneurship, Dr Jatinder Singh said the focus of Government is to reach the last man who is the weakest link in the chain to make the country developed. He emphasized the need to build capacity and create jobs for the youth in the agriculture and allied sectors. He further added that similar initiatives have already been taken under his leadership in North East.

Minister for public Health Engineering (PHE) Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Choudhary who was Guest of Honour on the occasion, appreciated the efforts of Directorate of Field Publicity for organising the program. He said DFP is meant for spreading awareness among people living in far-flung areas of the country. He urged the gathering to spread the information in their locality about various centrally sponsored schemes highlighted during the special outreach programme organized by Directorate of Field Publicity.

He added that people cannot avail benefits of various schemes unless they know about it and unless local masses come forward to spread awareness about these schemes, the schemes are not going to reach to the common masses.

MLA Kathua, Rajiv Jasrotia in his address said that farming community should take advantage of the Modern technology in order to make the farming and related practices simpler and increase their productivity. He said that government has also undertaken the initiatives to introduce newer techniques in the agriculture sector which would ensure that the agriculture produce gets increased and thereby resulting in uplift of the economic activities of the farming community.

MLA Hiranagar, Kuldeep Raj also spoke on the occasion and said that unless the schemes and initiatives taken by the Government of India reached common rural masses, they cannot be benefited and the objective of doubling their income will remain unfulfilled.

He added that farmer can get more produce from less land only if they are educated and aware about new techniques and available schemes.

Director General Directorate of Field Publicity, R.P Saroj in his address said that Government of India has launched 72 schemes for the benefit of the local masses and it is the duty of Directorate of Field Publicity to spread awareness about all these schemes among local masses through two way (Interpersonal) communications. He said that people should know how to avail the benefit of these schemes and to whom they need to approach for availing these benefits. He said the directorate through its programmes tries to bring different concerned departments under one umbrella for the convenience of local masses

Deputy Director, DFP, J&K, Neha Jalali in her address gave brief Introduction of DFP and made people aware about the working of DFP and its aims & objectives of organizing such awareness programmes. She in her address said that DFP J&K is organizing such Programmes in far flung and remote areas throughout the state and enlightened the gathering that during the months of November-December 2017, Directorate of Field Publicity will organize similar Special Outreach Awareness Campaigns at Samba also.

In today’s programme Resource persons from various concerned departments gave expert lecture related to various schemes of their respective Departments. The departments that participated in today’s programme were  Agriculture Department Kathua, Sericulture Department Kathua, Floriculture Department Kathua, Horticulture Department Kathua, Apiculture Department Kathua and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (SKAUST) Kathua, J&K Grameen Bank Kathua, Rural development Department Kathua, District Information centre Kathua. DoorDarshan Kathua, All India Radio Kathua and Jammu and District Administration Kathua.

First-hand information through publicity material and pamphlets about the formalities for availing benefits of various schemes was also provided to the visitors on stalls setup by the said departments.

Song and Drama Division mesmerized the audience with their melodious theme based and folk songs and the programme ended with singing of National Anthem.