Vice Chancellor SKUAST-J interacts with farmers at Kandi villages of Akhnoor

Jammu: Prof. J.P. Sharma, Vice-Chancellor SKUAST-Jammu, other day visited Gargal and Godhan villages of Akhnoor tehsil and interacted with the beneficiaries of DST-SEED, a New Delhi funded Project “Demonstration of technologies for improving productivity in rainfed areas in Jammu district.”
During the field visit and interaction, Prof J.P. Sharma said that there is a need to shift from traditional cultivation of wheat and maize to more profitable crops like vegetable and horticultural to enhance income and nutritional requirement among farming community. He also emphasized on to promote horticulture and medicinal plants cultivation in Kandi areas to boost the local economy.
Earlier, Dr. R.K.Srivastava, Principal Investigator of the project, briefed about activities done under the project. He said the basic objective of the project is to demonstrate various soil and water conservation technologies at farmer’s field and thereby improving livelihood in rainfed areas through crop diversifications.
Giving further details, he said under this project various poly tanks (100 m3), percolation tanks (100 m3), recharging pits (48 m3), Roof water harvesting system (2000 lit), gabion structures, contour bunding, continuous contour trenching, bench terracing, check dam were constructed at project site for soil and water conservation.
“Portable sprinkler systems and gravity feed drip irrigation systems were also installed at project site for improving water use efficiency” he added.
Dr. Sushil Sharma, Prof & Head, Agricultural Engineering, and Co-PI highlighted the need of extension of these technologies to other farmers of the area.
During the interaction, the beneficiaries shared their experiences and informed about starting vegetable cultivation in their fields and kitchen garden due to availability of water through technological interventions of the project.
Dr. J.P. Singh, Asso Prof and Dr. Sushmita M. Dadhich, Asstt Prof, Co-PI(s) of the project were also present during the field visit. Er. Ashish Kumar Yadav, Project Coordinator coordinated the field visit.