STATE TIMES NEWS
KATHUA: An awareness programme on futures markets for farmers and other stakeholders was organised in Kathua on Monday by NABCONS. The programme was attended by Vijay Padha, Director, SBI-RSETI. R.K Kalsotra, LBO, Kathua, Dr. Amrish Vaid, Programme Coordinator, KVK, Dr. A.P Singh, Subject Matter Specialist, KVK, Dr. Berjesh Ajrawat, SMS, KVK, Aman Kalsotra, DDM, NABARD and farmers of Kathua District.
Speaking to the gathering, Vijay Padha, Director, SBI-RSETI asked the small farmers to become aggregators. He also asked them to sow the crop by determining price mechanism and risk of the crop to be covered. He also asked them to be enterprising, get training of the profession of their choice from SBI-RSETI.
On this occasion, Aman Kalsotra, DDM, NABARD, Kathua explained the basic principle of hedging, speculation and arbitage. He dealt upon the issues of Indian farmers in general viz. traditional cropping pattern, dependencies on monsoon, irregular flow of credit, Adathiya system, stocking infrastructure and marketing. He asked the farmers to avoid cobweb syndrome by using futures prices as signal for cropping pattern. He dealt with issues pertaining to pre and post harvesting management.
R.K Kalsotra, LBO, Kathua informed that Annual Action Plan for the year 2014-15 is Rs 834 crore of which priority sector target were at Rs 471 crore. He informed that the credit of about than Rs 217 crore has been released in the district in various activities by different banks in the district. He asked the farmers to avail KCC and focus on developing through credit.
Dr. Amrish Vaid, Programme Coordinator, KVK, Kathua gave a detailed presentation on integrated approach on disease management in wheat crop, with special emphasis on yellow rust. He impressed upon the judicious use of insecticides and fungicides, to increase their farm income. He asked the progressive farmers to invest some part of their land holding towards creating orchards, apiculture, floriculture etc. so as to avail benefit from cash crops.
Dr. A.P Singh, Scientist, KVK, elaborated upon healthy cropping practices and being tech savvy in today’s context. He briefed the farmers about latest agricultural practices being followed and how they can benefit from IT enabled services.
Dr. Berjesh Ajrawat, SMS, KVK dealt on issues of ‘Market led agriculture extension- problems and opportunities’ wherein he deliberated upon the smart farming, market intelligence, use of latest implements in agriculture, soil nutrition, cropping pattern, crop rotation etc.
