Srinagar, June 16: The Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal Wednesday highlighted the importance of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), which he said has been envisaged to provide economic security to farmers.

Chowdhary Iqbal, who is also Mission Director PMFBY, chaired a meeting to review the implementation of the scheme in Anantnag, Udhampur, Jammu and Samba districts for a period of three years.

During the meeting, the director highlighted the importance of implementation of the flagship programme. He said the main purpose of the Yojna is to ensure economic security to the farmers by means of crop insurance to cope with the situation arising out of losses incurred during natural calamities or crop failures.

While interacting with the stakeholders, the director said that the department’s prime objective is to ensure that farmers' concerns are addressed and their financial security is assured in every respect of implementation of the said scheme.

The meeting was attended by the Joint Director Agriculture Extension Mohammad Qasim Gani, representatives of different insurance companies and other senior officers of the department. Some of the stakeholders participated virtually in the meeting.

Later, the director visited Lavender Extraction Plant Lalmandi, Srinagar where he interacted with the technical experts.

On the occasion, he said that the department is working on a proposal to attract educated youth towards the specialized agriculture activities like the cultivation of aromatic plants and floriculture. He said extraction of lavender oil has shown a great scope of generating employment opportunities.

He asked the concerned officers and technical staff of the extraction unit to adopt the latest technologies in the field so that the enterprise could become more remunerative.