STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) organised two major regional workshops for Kashmir region at Srinagar on 27th and 28th November. The workshops were chaired by S.A Pande, Chief General Manager NABARD J and K.
The first workshop was a review of projects being implemented by State Government Departments with financial assistance from the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) of NABARD.
The Special Secretary Finance Shaukat Aijaz Bhat, Director Planning Department and Senior Officers from R and B, Agriculture Department and Animal Husbandry Department attended the workshop.
Sanjeev Dhamija, DGM NABARD J and K Regional Office and D.K Kapila, DGM NABARD Kashmir guided the deliberations.
S.A Pande CGM advised implementing departments to step up the pace of submission of DPRs (Detailed Project Reports) for maintaining an adequate pipeline of projects to be sanctioned and also emphasised the importance of projects being implemented in time. He also emphasised the need to draw funds in time from NABARD.
The CGM also said that NABARD would consider favourably the fresh sanction of ongoing infrastructure projects damaged by floods.
The second workshop was a stakeholder meet on producer groups, joint liability groups and farm sector schemes of NABARD inclusive of watershed development.
The CGM chaired the workshop while Dr Afifa Kamili, Director Extension SKUAST Srinagar was the Guest of Honour.
The CGM listed out the priorities of the Union Government and NABARD with regard to Joint Liability Groups and Producer Groups and emphasised their importance in rural areas in the current socio economic scenario. He also underlined the need to take up up-scaling of the rural non farm sector and the support from NABARD for supporting innovation in the farm and nonfarm sectors.
D.K Kapila, DGM NABARD Kashmir region said that it was for the first time KVKs and NGOs had been brought together on a common platform, in fact their mutual association and synergy would provide a fillip to the developmental initiatives and their grounding.
Dr Afifa Kamili Director Extension SKUAST underlined the need to improve productivity and production in the rural farm and non- farm sectors as also the need to focus on fruit processing. She agreed that commodity based producer organisations would be of economic benefit to farmers.
The workshop identified projects and subjects with the maximum potential for generating developmental benefits for due consideration of sanction.
Sanjeev Dhamija, DGM NABARD stated that the predominance of small holdings in Kashmir Region indicated the usefulness of Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) for ensuring the adequate outreach of credit. The workshop concluded with specific timelines for submission of projects for sanction.
