Progressing J&K
India is home to several agricultural and non-agricultural (including manufacturing) products that are region-specific and every district have products that are unique and provide livelihoods and generate income. To realize the true potential of a district, fuel economic growth and generate employment with an aim of impetus to rural entrepreneurship, the Government has launched transformational scheme One District One Product (ODOP) under Atmanirbhar Bharat. Rajouri, a border district of the J&K UT has been selected as a dairy district under the scheme as it has huge potential in the dairy sector. Dairy sector is one of the crucial sectors in the Indian economy that not only provides employment to rural households but also contributes to the economy of the country. Dairy field is among the biggest in the Agriculture sector, especially in animal husbandry. This is because there are pastoral societies who keep a big number of cows and also other people who just keep cows as a means for second income earning. The major occupation of the rural people of Jammu and Kashmir is agriculture and livestock rearing making it major source of income and employment here. Dairy sector not only generates income and employment among the farmers but also supplements the varied nutritional requirements of the individuals. District Administration under the overall supervision of the District Development Commissioner Rajouri, Vikas Kundal has been taking several measures to strengthen the dairy sector and efforts being made to enhance the milk production in the district. The Department of Animal Husbandry is also working out on all the modalities to help the dairy farmers enhance the milk production in the district to make the district an export hub in the identified products. The Department of Animal Husbandry has worked on all parameters before rolling out the schemes. The Department has organized number of awareness camps, house visits and other distributions activities in the far-flung areas of district. The major support has been provided by the Panchayat Raj Institutions as they are backbone of the government. They play very prominent role in implementing the schemes that are introduced by government for the socio economic development of the people. Another factor which contributed in expansion of the diary sector is that the department is in complete contact with the beneficiaries and department also facilitated them during the Pashudhan Mela at Lakhanpur. It is because of untiring efforts of District Administration and department of Animal Husbandry that the district has witnessed fairly reasonable growth in terms of milk production from 3.67 lakh lts per day to 3.85 lakh lts per day since the launch of ODOP scheme in the district and has become milk surplus. The field functionaries of the department are also encouraging the farmers to take benefits of these farmers’ friendly schemes being implemented by the Department for their socio-economic development. After increase in production, the major concern for the dairy unit holders is the market linkage facilities; and department is also working on the lines to establish dairy cooperative societies to provide market linkages to the societies in the district. Efforts of the District Administration are also fully backed by the dairy farmers of the district who are also extending full support for the successful implementation of the ODOP initiative of the Government. The farmers have also expressed their gratitude to the Government for launching this ambitious scheme for their welfare and appealed for continuing such initiatives in near future also to ameliorate their socio-economic status.