Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, May 19: Reiter-ating Central Government’s resolve to double the income of farmers by 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today listed five Ts (Training, Talent, Technology, Timely action and Trouble free approach) as most significant for bringing agriculture revolution in the country.
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While delivering Convocation Address at the 6th Convocation of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sci-ences and Technology (SK-UAST), Jammu at Baba Jitto Auditorium in the university main campus, Chatha, here today, the Prime Minister drew attention towards the challenges like global warming and stressed the need to adopt new strategies with regard to technology as well as the crop.
“You need to develop such models which are friendly to futuristic technology and cater to the local needs,” he suggested and listed the series of initiatives taken by the Government of India for doubling income of the farmers.
Maintaining that quality human resources is a big challenge for developing technology based and entrepreneurship driven agriculture sector in the country, the Prime Minister exhorted the SKUAST Jammu to set some targets such emerging as one of the top 100 universities in the world or increasing the per hectare agriculture to a certain level by 2022, the centenary year of Indian independence.
“As you are entering into an open classroom from this campus, keep your student mindset alive and don’t kill the innovations. The degrees in your hand are not mere an academic certificate but hopes of the farmers, who have a lot of expectation from you,” he told the passing out students and exhorted them to take a pledge for contribution towards nation building.
Earlier, Governor N N Vohra, who is also Chancellor of the university, also stressed the need to increase production of agriculture and animals products in Jammu and Kashmir, which imports huge poultry and meat from other States costing over Rs 200 crores per annum.
“Two third population of the State is dependent on the agriculture sector, which has not shown a growth. We should aim at reducing imports to nil and emerge as net exporting State in the agriculture and livestock sector by ensuring proper utilization of land and water resources,” he said.
He also exhorted the students to be disciplined and never compromise on ethics and moral values. “Whatever area you decide to work in future, conduct yourself as disciplined and never compromise on ethics and moral values,” he stressed.
In her address, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who is Pro-Chancellor of SKUAST-J, also admitted that despite number of Government schemes, there was no much growth in the agriculture sector which is otherwise lifeline of Jammu Kashmir.
“Despite being producer of world famous Basmati rice, saffron, dry fruits etc, we are still lagging behind because what we learn in the university are not applied in the field,” she lamented and appealed the faculty as well as students of the Agriculture University to use their knowledge more in fields than the classrooms.
Earlier, SKUAST-J Vice-Chancellor Prof Pardeep K Sharma highlighted achievements and activities of the Agriculture university. He presented the Vice-Chancellor’s report and also briefed about the new initiatives proposed for better education and for betterment of farming community in particular.
During the Convocation, Prime Minister presented 6 Gold Medals to the toppers; Chancellor awarded 55 PhD degrees in Agriculture, Basic Sciences & Veterinary Sciences & Animal Husbandry, 85 Master’s degrees in Agriculture, Biotechnology and Agri Business Management, 77 Master’s degrees in Veterinary Science, 12 Master’s degrees in Basic Sciences, 124 Bachelor degrees in Agriculture and Biotechnology, 91 Bachelor degrees in Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences while Mehbooba Mufti presented 100 Certificates of Merit.
Total 444 degrees were presented while the Gold Medals were awarded to Yogesh, Gazal Gupta, Gurpreise Kour, Gavneet Sawhney, Neena Kumari and Megha Sharma.
The Convocation was declared open and closed by Prof Dilip Kachroo, Registrar SKUAST-J with the formal permission of the Chancellor.
Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in PMO; Kavinder Gupta, Deputy Chief Minister; Mohammad Khalil Band, Minister for Agriculture Production; Syed Basharat Bukhari, Minister for Horticulture, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, other Ministers, MP Jugal Kishore, Legislators; Vice Chancellors of various State Universities; members of the Faculty; students; parents of the students and many distinguished guests were present on the occasion.
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