The honor and dignity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir depended on their economic independence VAT on agricultural tools may go low in next budget: Omar Abdullah

The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said 60% of our population is directly engaged with agriculture sector and gives employment to near about 80% of our population. For the first time in our govt farmers participated in our budget discussion and in future we are planning to low down the VAT on agricultural tools. The honor and dignity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir depended on their economic independence which can be only achieved only through agricultural sector. 
 Addressing a public gathering in this South Kashmir district on the eve of Kissan Mela, Omar said his government was “working tirelessly” to strengthen the economy of the state and empower the people by making them self-sufficient. “The mainstay of Kashmir’s economy is agriculture, horticulture, handicrafts and tourism. All the four sectors have received special focus of my government. All efforts will be made in the future to strengthen them,” Omar said. 
 Omar said modern agricultural technology needs to be blended with conventional methods to enhance the quality and increase the yield in the agriculture sector to enable higher returns and international acceptance. He called for a comprehensive policy to make agriculture an economic hub, especially for the educated youth. “Diverse cropping pattern and utilization of modern farm technology are significantly important in this regard,” he said. “The vast potential of economic activities in agriculture and allied sectors has to be scientifically harnessed and young people need be persuaded to take up profitable ventures in this field.”
 Omar underlined the need to adopt a new strategy of cultivating crops of higher economic values and utilizing available agriculture land to its optimum. “Popularizing double and triple cropping pattern by taking to modern technology and using high yielding varieties of seeds besides application of balanced doses of fertilizers is need of the hour,” he said, asking the Agriculture Department to concentrate on this aspect and encourage
growing of cash crops as a regular farming practice.
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 Omar referred to the significance of hybrid and improved varieties of seeds to boost up the production. “The replacement of low yielding varieties is all the more important to give considerable fillip to the agriculture production,” he said. “The Department should formulate a programme of achieving 100 percent replacements of seeds by high yielding varieties in a phased manner. The farming community has to be properly educated in this regard and sufficient quantity of improved seeds made available to them accordingly.” 
 On National Saffron Mission launched with the assistance of Central Government, Omar said that Rs. 376 crore Project was likely to give required push to the cultivation, production and marketing of saffron.

 The Chief Minister asked the SK University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology to ensure transfer of the new research and farm techniques developed in the University to the field so that farmers reap the fruit of modern technology. “The scientific findings and the research work should not lie on papers. There is urgent need to apply this in the field and help revolutionize the productivity and production,” he said.
 The function was addressed by Minister for  Education Peer Zada Mohd syed, , Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir, Ministers of State, Ajaz Ahmad Khan, Dr. Manohar Lal, Javaid Ahmad Dar, Vice Chairman, Kissan Board, Rachpal Singh, MLA Doru Galam Ahmad Mir and Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-K, Dr. Tezpal Singh.
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