Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said thegovernment will ensure that farmers in Jammu and Kashmir get fair value forpremium crops such as apples, saffron, peaches and walnuts grown in the Valleyand that the farm produce from the region reaches all parts of the country.“Ihave requested NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development)chairman (Harsh Kumar Bhanwala) to visit Jammu & Kashmir with me before thecrop season starts. We are also looking at Ladakh as a huge source of solarenergy," the minister said at the 6th World Congress on Rural andAgricultural Finance.

Farm produce from the union territory of J&K reachingdifferent parts of India echoes the government’s intention to integrate theregion with the rest of the country after it scrapped Article 370, which gavespecial status to the Valley, in August 2019, turning J&K into a unionterritory with a legislature.

The minister reiterated the Centre’s plan to set up 10,000farmer producer organisations over the next five years to help small andmarginal farmers sell produce at better prices and get lower rates for inputsand.“We are looking at India that acknowledges more-than-proportionatedependence on rural life. We are not looking at farmers just as ‘annadata’(food provider) but as ‘urjadata’ (energy provider). We want farmers tocontribute to generating solar power as well," the minister said.Sitharamanalso addressed farmers’ issues such as water stress to cultivate crops and saidthe country needs to take up water management to quickly resolve the problem ofwater shortage.She urged the authorities to dismantle agricultural producemarketing committee (APMC) systems and switch to National Agriculture Market,or e-NAM, an electronically operated trading platform, to enable farmers tosell their produce across the country and get fair and equal value.

 “The government ispushing the adoption of e-NAMs in a big way… Many problems associated with farmersare because of them not getting fair value for what they grow," theminister said.

The minister also advised farmers to grow oilseeds thatattract huge demand.