J&K finance minister’s announcement that tax concessions on agriculture and allied sectors will continue in future budgets is welcome. The government in the previous budget had announced toll tax exemption on import of fertilizers, agriculture tools, weedicides and pesticides, besides minimizing import duty on day-old chicks to promote poultry sector in the state. However, there is need for some further concrete steps by the government in the upcoming budget so as to ensure growth in this sector. In the past some budgets one thing has been seen that while some sectors have received good attention, some others have been largely neglected. One of the healthy features of any vibrant economy is its focused attention on every sector. Prudent policy makers cannot afford to neglect one sector at the cost of other. Despite tremendous growth the service and manufacturing sectors have witnessed across the globe, contemporary economies have not neglected the primary sector of economy. Agriculture despite its low growth over past some years stills contributes a considerable share to the gross domestic product of the countries. J&K, predominantly an agrarian society, however, has largely apparently failed to give due attention to this sector. Although over the years the agriculture in J&K has witnessed some growth— albeit spasmodic— the successive governments have failed to bring in new concepts whose introduction could surely have proved highly beneficial in stimulating this sector. In our neighbouring states, introduction of new agri-concepts and innovations have done wonders. When it comes to strengthening the agriculture, there is a dire need for J&K to underpin and expand its irrigation facilities. J&K simply has no enviable irrigation infrastructure on the ground. Although the Indus Water Treaty puts some spanners in constructing dams and building huge reservoirs in the state, yet that does not fully debar the government to bring in sophisticated and scientific micro-irrigation facilities. The state is also face to face with a potent threat of loss of agriculture land to the non-farm activities. There is an urgent need to put a stop to this practice.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 25 Dec 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 25 Dec 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 26 Dec 2012 00:00:00 IST