Jammu, Feb 2 (PTI) A senior government official on Wednesday assured all help including provision of agriculture machinery to farmers on priority basis to enable them to cultivate land along the international border in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare, Navin K Choudhary gave the assurance during a tour of Kathua to inspect on ground activities being undertaken by agriculture and allied departments.
While inspecting the border wheat sowing on 150 acres of land at Hiranagar sector, Choudhary said the farmers of this area used to keep large acreage of their land uncultivated along the Indo-Pak border due to cross border firing.
He said that this year, due to government policy, a series of collective efforts were initiated by the agriculture department, civil administration, Border Security Forces (BSF) to achieve a breakthrough in this respect.
As a result, the farming community came forward and a wheat sowing operation was started during Rabi 2021-22 on zero line after a period of 19 years.
An additional support of seed, fertilizers and tractors was also made available to the farmers and cultivation of wheat on 150 acre of border land was completed involving farmers of border villages including Chandwan, Chak Changa and Londi.
“We are looking forward to cover the entire area which was lying fallow beyond fencing at zero line by next cropping season and all help including provision of agriculture machinery and other inputs will be made available to the farmers on priority basis,” he said.
During his visit, the Principal Secretary also interacted with farmers who expressed satisfaction over this initiative by the government that enabled them to cultivate their land after a long period. PTI TAS AB MR MR
