Jammu, Apr 5:  Government has taken various steps to ensure proper, quality and timely distribution of seeds among the farming community of the state, said Minister for Agriculture,   Ghulam Hassan Mir, while replying to a question by   Ajay Kumar Sadhotra in the Legislative Council Monday.
 Giving details the Minister said that certified seeds, produced in the departmental farms, are got tested from the State Seed Testing Laboratory as per the requirements of the Seed Act and then distributed to the farming community.
 He said the shortfall in the seed requirements is met from the SKUAST, Jammu and Kashmir and the State owned Seed Corporations and before distribution these are also got tested from the State Seed Testing Laboratory.  He said that seeds are also dispatched to permanent as well as seasonal seed stores of the department for distribution among the farming community of the area as per field requirements.
 The Minister said the Agriculture Production Department presently caters to 10 to 15% of the seed replacement requirements and efforts are being made to raise the capacity of the department to meet 25% of the demand, which is the national average.
 While replying to another question by   Subash Chander Gupta, the Minister informed the House that the fertility of land declines due to non judicious and imbalanced application of fertilizers and manures. He said the average consumption of fertilizer (NPK) in J&K State is 85.7 Kg per hectare which is far less than the consumption in States like Punjab and Haryana and also less than the national average. The indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers does pose marginal hazards over the long run, the Minister maintained.
 He said the Agriculture Department has advised the farmers to use chemical fertilizers as per the recommendations of the Sher-i-Kashmir Universities of Agriculture Sciences and Technology. The Department is also popularizing the use of organic farming and provides incentives under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and the Technology Mission for the North-Eastern States (TMNE).

Lastupdate on : Mon, 5 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 5 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 6 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST