Jammu, Mar 9: Secretary, Tribal Affairs, Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, on Wednesday flagged off 18 Bhains Paalan Progressive Milk farmers, belonging to tribal community of Jammu division, for 2 day training cum exposure tour to Haryana.
The training programme, which was organized by the Jammu and Kashmir Advisory Board for Development of Kisans in collaboration with National Diary Research Institute Karnal, Haryana, is commencing from 10th March, 2022. These framers shall be given hand on training on “Scientific Management of Buffaloes “with focus on “Bhains Paalan avm Nasl Sudhar”.
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary asked the farmers to make optimum use of this opportunity for their overall development. He asked the concerned to conduct a post training session after the return of these 18 Bhains Paalan farmers so that the feedback about the training and the techniques which they have obtained and learnt during the training programme at NDRI Karnal, Haryana, can be ascertained.
He asked the Animal Husbandry Department, Jammu and J&K Advisory Board for Development of Kisans to jointly identify a group of 200 milk growers from tribal community of Jammu division for their exposure tour cum training programme in neighboring states of the country.
Dr Shahid added that the mapping of tribal community in Samba and Kathua districts needs be conducted jointly by the Directorate of Tribal Affairs Department and J&K Advisory Board for Development of Kisans so that more such training modules can be framed and arranged for the uplift of this community. He said that sufficient funds shall be allocated to J&K Advisory Board for Development of Kisans by the Department of Tribal Affairs for conducting such training programmes, exposure tours and awareness campaigns.
Secretary J&K Advisory Board for Development of Kisans, Abdul Hamid Wani, also spoke on the occasion and highlighted the achievements and importance of Board. He informed that establishment of this Board is a sincere demonstration of Government’s resolve to look into the worsening plight of farmers of JK.
He said that Jammu and Kashmir has a good population of tribal community locally called as Dooddi Gujar who are associated with Bhains Paalan and other dairy related activities. The Board has observed that there is a need to train these tribal community milk growers in modern dairy farming practices and innovative dairy processing technology so that they can increase their income qualitatively and quantitively.
While highlighting the need of such exposure tours and training programmes, the Board members also pleaded for encouragement of such initiatives and demanded for making it as a routine process for overall development of farmers in order to increase milk production and improve their livelihood.
All the heads of departments of agriculture and allied sectors including Directorate of Tribal Affairs besides more than 200 other milk growers associated with Bhains Paalan attended the flag off ceremony.
