Chief Secretary asks deptts to work harder on 400 cr Saffron Mission

SRINAGAR:- The State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC) headed by Chief Secretary, B R Sharma, Friday accorded sanction to the proposed Agri Action Plan of Rs 109.35 Crore under Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and National Mission on Saffron for the year 2016-17.

The proposed allocation under RKVY (Normal) is Rs 37 Cr and under the National Mission on Saffron, allocation is to the tune of Rs 72.35 Cr. The sanctioned plan will be submitted to the Union Ministry of Agriculture for release of funds.

While reviewing the progress of implementation of the scheme, Chief Secretary called upon Agriculture Department to undertake evaluation/field studies of RKVY impact, both in terms of addressing field level infrastructural gaps and also benefits that have accrued to the farmers in the form of yield and returns.

Under RKVY, focus should have been on achieving quantifiable outcomes in agriculture and allied sectors, however, it is observed that State has not been able to reap the benefits of the scheme to satisfactory levels and consequently agriculture sector has not recorded major improvements on ground as was expected Chief Secretary said.

Chief Secretary also underlined the need to work harder under the National Mission on Saffron to revive the economic potential of the Saffron crop in the traditional Saffron growing belts of the State. Department needs to work harder so that entire amount of Rs 400 cr allocated under the flagship Saffron Mission is utilised and Saffron records improvement both in terms of yield and quality he said.

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The National Mission on saffron was launched in J&K in the year 2010-11, as a flagship project of Rs 400 cr. Till date, an amount of Rs 205 cr has been released. For the year 2016-17, an action plan of Rs 72.35 cr has been proposed.

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