Srinagar, April 11: Governor N N Vohra today stressed for coordinated efforts to enhance maize production in J&K.
 Speaking at the inaugural session of 53rd Annual Maize Workshop at SKUAST campus at Shalimar here, the governor who is the chancellor of the university said the history of Indian agriculture is impressive. However he added: “Though we have improved a lot since the partition, the agriculture at the national level is growing only at 1.5 to 2 per cent. It has rarely touched 4 per cent.”
 He said the contribution of agriculture to the GDP has also come down from 23 per cent few years ago, to 18 per cent last year.”
 The governor stressed the need for improving the production of maize in J&K. He said: “Live stock situation in our state suggests contraction in grazing lands. 70 per cent of the poultry feed is maize so we have a challenge before us to increase our maize production,” he said.
 The governor said the state is exporting the products like eggs, poultry and meat worth Rs 1500 crores every year and hard work is required not only to make the state self sufficient in such products but also to produce surplus quantity for exports.
 He said there is need to transfer technologies from ICAR to the state for improving the maize production. “The faculty and the staff of the universities need to have sharp focus on ground. They need to work within a specific time frame with proper focus.”
 “The ICAR should guide the distribution system, packaging system etc. When the farmers will get a good crop they need to assist them to get fair prices for their yield. We have to ensure that the cultivator should get proper benefits and we should not be concerned only about the state or the country,” he added.
 He said the workshop should be followed by the time bound implementations of the recommendations so that the state gets benefited.
 Speaking on the occasion Vice Chancellor SKUAST, Professor Anwar Alam said: “Maize is a multipurpose crop used as food, fodder and industrial raw material.”
 He said the people in the Valley were traditionally maize eaters. “They have now become the rice eaters but the region and state as a whole has strong tradition of maize production and consumption,” he said.
 The vice chancellor said there is acute shorting of meat in the state and about 70 per cent of it comes from outside states.
 “Pasture lands are already overgrazed. There is little scope for diverting land for fodder production. Feed and fodder have to come from cultivated food grain crop and their residues,” he said.
 According to him the Valley is highly dependent on outside states for feed supply. “Unless we have good maize harvest we will continue to be dependent on outside states for feed,” he said.
 “Last time when there was a threat of H1N1 virus we had decided to stop the import of poultry. At that time we were threatened by the outsiders that if we do so, they will stop supply of feed. So in order to avoid such threats we need to be self sufficient,” he added.
 Prof Alma said in J&K there is the paucity of feeds and fodders for the livestock as a result of which animal productivity suffers. “There is 20 per cent deficit in fodders and 85 per cent deficit in feed concentrate,” he said.
 He said the people need not be panic about low maize production in J&K as the maize varieties developed by SKUAST like Composite Krishan Ganga 1 and 2 have shown four times more productivity. “It has become so popular with the farmers that we are finding it difficult to meet the seed requirement,” he said.
 Explaining the wide range of uses of maize the Vice chancellor said that apart from using it as food and fodder, maize is used for making glucose, dextrose and many other liquid sweeteners. “All such things are made out of the corn starch,” he said.
 Dr Sain Dass, Director of Directorate of Maize Research gave an overview of the Project Directors report 2009-10 on the occasion.
 Among the others who attended the inaugural session was Dr A. R. Trag Directors Research SKUAST, DR R.P Dua Assistant Director General ICAR, Meharaj Ahmad Kakroo Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Director Agriculture, Delegates from various states of India and various other officials of SKUAST.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST