Press Meet at SKUAST-Jammu

Jammu, December 2: SKUAST-Jammu organized a press meet at its main campus Chatha here today. The press meet was addressed by Dr. JP Sharma Vice-Chancellor SKUAST-J. Directors of various departments, heads of Departments, and other faculty members were also present at the event. Media personnel from different Media outlets were the special guest of the said event.
SKUAST-Jammu is committed to turn the fortunes of farmers in Jammu region through promotion of scientific and innovative farm practices & market linkages. Recently, SKUAST-Jammu has achieved new heights in all its mandates of teaching, research and extension, following SOPs of pandemic situation. Agricultural Extension remains the principal priority of SKUAST-Jammu. Some of recent activities of the University includes, all the package of practices of all the crops namely, kharif, rabi, vegetables, fruits, floriculture & Landscaping were revised and distributed to respective state departments. Farmer's participatory seed production programme has been initiated in collaboration with KVKs from rabi season by distributing 500q of improved varieties of wheat for achieving the target of seed replacement and better returns to farmers. Amid labour shortage during COVID-19 pandemic, SKUAST-Jammu conducted demonstrations on Direct Seed Rice (DSR) in Basmati rice-wheat belt covering 50 acres of land in Jammu region. The technology reduced cost of cultivation by about Rs.10000-12000/ha without sacrificing the yield. District Agro-Meteorological Units at KVK Kathua and KVK Reasi have been established to send agro-advisories to farmers in these districts. Another initiative taken by the University is establishment of integrated farming system model of 0.5 hectare at each KVK which is expected to fetch income of Rs. 1,50,000/- per annum, which is four times more than the income presently earned by farmers from agriculture in Jammu. Besides, University is setting up processing and value addition centre in each KVK which will not only reduce post-harvest losses but also substantially increase the income of the farmers. More than 3/4th area of the region is rainfed and kandi in nature, so there is a great potential for cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants in Jammu. To exploit this potential, University has planned to setup facility of quality planting material production. Studies have estimated that share of farmers in consumer’s rupee is 23%. So the focus of University is beyond production through development of strategies and market linkages for increasing the share of farmers in consumers’ rupee. University and KVKs are frontrunners in linking farmers with market. An outlet for sale of a proprietary and branded Abdullian Milk Cake under University ‘Chatha’ branding at R.S. Pura Campus has been initiated to provide marketing facilities to a group of families in Abdullian village. They have been trained and advised on value addition of the processed milk cake, and cutting and packaging of the product. In addition, two shops have been allotted to Directorate of Extension at Chatha Campus of the University, one of which is exclusively reserved for sale of farmers produce.
Formation of Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs) is another top priority of the University, keeping in view the targets of Central Government for forming 10,000 FPOs in a timespan of five years. KVKs have already develop models for registration of commodity based FPOs in several districts of Jammu region.
Branding, packaging and marketing shall remain the focus area for generating higher returns to farmers for their niche products. Rajmash, organic basmati and other organic products will be branded to bring these products at national and interpretation market for fetching higher prices.
Among new initiatives in extension education, SKUAST-Jammu has announced the launch of an innovative programme ‘VC to Village (V2V)’, wherein Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-Jammu will visit different villages, alongwith a team of scientists from crop and animal sciences to provide on-spot solution to farmers. ‘Village visit and Re-visit’ programme is already undergoing and every week a team of scientists from faculty of agriculture and veterinary sciences visits the farmers’ house to get feedback of field problems.
The establishment of three new KVKs at Udhampur, Ramban and Kishtwar is also the top priority and efforts are undergoing for their early establishment. In order to motivate the farmers, a compendium of success stories of farm innovators of Jammu division has been documented.
University has undertaken as series of entrepreneurship development programmes in fisheries, mushroom, dairy, bee-keeping etc. to develop skill and technical know-how of rural youths for setting-up of income generating enterprises. A massive campaign has been initiated by the University to aware the farmers on government schemes in agriculture for getting benefits and realizing the dream of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Faculty provides farmers’ trainings, entrepreneurship development and empowerment of women in different avenues of livestock farming and poultry- like vermin-compost, silage making, milk and meat product value addition, Urea Molasses Mineral Blocks (UMMB), Rapid mastitis diagnostic test or the diagnosis of sub-clinical mastitis which is one of the leading livestock problem incurring approximately Rs. 7,000 crore nationwide annual losses to farmers. 27 veterinary clinical camps were organized in different villages namely Maralia, Chanduchak, Bega, Mellowal, Suchetgarh, Panchgrain, Abdulliah, Sunjwan, Chowadhi, Doongia, Brijnagar, Sandhi, Samba, Khada Madana, Sumbli, Babli, Sangliani & Jabri (Poonch) etc. and about 1121 farmers were benefited so far. Currently characterization and preservation of bio-diverse animal genetic resources of the region including Bhakarwali Goat/ Poonchi sheep and Poonchi Chicken have been carried out. Quality improvement of livestock products with their value addition; Identification of livestock diseases through molecular techniques, identification of zoonotic agents, developing and designing feeding regimen inclusive of non-conventional locally available feeds
The University has established an ‘Agribusiness Incubation Centre’ under RKVY-RAFTAAR project and implemented Agri Business Incubator Scheme having UDGAM (Pre-Seed Stage Funding) and PRAGATI (Seed Stage Funding) with grants-in-aid to the tune of 5 lakhs and 25 lakhs, respectively. Six Startups have already been funded, wherein Rs 56 lakhs has been sanctioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
A centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (CIED) has been proposed to be established at Chatha with a focus to facilitate innovations through capacity building in the fields of agriculture, horticulture, post-harvest and animal husbandry.
As far as the research achievements are concerned, fifteen externally funded projects amounting to Rs. 248.79 lakhs have been approved in 2020. Organic farming policy document for J&K, Union Territory has also been prepared. Newly developed basmati varieties such as Basmati 118, Basmati 123 and Basmati 138 will revive the world famous Basmati of Jammu region. Development of JAUW-672 suitable for restricted irrigation, JAUW-691 and JAUW-694 for timely sown condition irrigated conditions, Jammu Mustard JM-13-5, JGS 12-3 are under final stage of testing and release.
University has already standardized its technology on hydroponics and vertical farming and the same is being demonstrated at KVKs and farmers’ fields. Soil erosion maps for representative micro-watersheds in foothill Shivaliks have been generated.
The major research highlights include formulation of Nano-biochar based fertilizers and nano encapsulation of essential oils for enhancing bioactive properties, establishment of Referral laboratory for DNA finger printing and quality testing of basmati and other crops, value addition of apiculture through innovative bee pollen, royal jelly, bee venom and Bee tincture etc.
The University is pro-active in implementing recently announced National Education Policy 2020. Besides, University has continuous its mandatory teaching programmes uninterrupted, through physical as well as virtual platforms during lockdown and current pandemic situation.
University has pepared a ‘Vision document’ for holistic development of agriculture in UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh which shall remain the guiding force in finalizing the future activities and road map of the University.