JAMMU : Pointing out that 70 to 80 percent of population is engaged in agriculture and allied sectors but 100 percent of population is dependent on agricultural produce, Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir today informed the House that to make the sector more profitable a new policy for the State is on the anvil. Replying to the discussion on demand of grants for the department under his charge, the Minister said the main input to the policy would be diversification of agriculture crops to motivate farmers to move towards low volume-high value crops like fruits, flowers, vegetables, medicine plants and niche products like saffron, Rajmash, Zeera etc. He said allied activities like dairying, poultry and sericulture will be further incentivized and encouraged. This will increase agriculture incomes and help generate employment in the farm sector. The Minister said diversification will not be at the expense of the goal of self-sufficiency in food grains, for which double cropping, especially in Kashmir Valley, is being promoted in a big way. Intensive efforts have been launched to encourage double cropping in the Kashmir Valley as the single cropping system is seen as a major constraint in the growth of agriculture in the Valley, he added. The Minister said that department has launched a Vegetable Initiative for Urban Clusters in Srinagar during the FY 2012 with an outlay of ` 6 crore. A similar such initiative, with an outlay of ` 6 crore, has also been launched in Jammu. The initiative envisages end-to-end linkage in vegetable production, marketing and processing through emphasis on baseline surveys and organization of farmers' groups production and productivity levels, the project regulated arrivals in the markets with adequate returns. Regarding adequate supply of fertilizer to the farmers of the State, the Minister said that the fertilizer supply in the State has been revamped. He said more companies have been roped in for supplying fertilizer in the State. As a consequence, there has been an increase in the use of fertilizer in the state from 1.98 lakh MTs in the FY 2009 to 2.26 lakh Mts in the FY 2011. The Minister said an ambitious national mission for the rejuvenation of saffron cultivation, with an investment of ` 372.18 crore, has been under implementation in the State. He said in the second years of its implementation, rejuvenation/ replanting of saffron corms has been carried out over an area of about 347 ha in the Valley. During FY 2012, saffron production is expected to be 9.75 MT at a productivity level of 2.66 kgs/hectare. The production and productivity of saffron by the time the Mission winds down is expected to touch 18 MT and 5 kgs/ per hectare respectively. For boosting famous 'basmati' rice, grown in the RS Pura belt of Jammu and its adjoining areas at international level, the Minister said, "on the request of State Government, the GoI relaxed the standards laid down for export of 'Basmati' rice. A 'Basmati' project under the 'RKVY' has also been taken up with the financial outlay of Rs. 20.76 lakh during FY 12 under which farmers are being made conversant with national and international standards for quality 'Basmati' rice production and protection techniques". Mr. Mir said the Agriculture Department, in collaboration, with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has decided to install Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) in all the 22 districts of the State, which will help in providing weather based data to the farming community to enable them to combat the vagaries of weather. In the 12 districts, land for the above purpose acquired and the ISRO is in the process of installing the AWS. The MLAs, who participated in the discussion include Abdul Haq Khan, Sukhnandan, Prof. Gharu Ram, Sajad Kitchloo, G. M. Saroori, Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen, Abdul Rehman Veeri, Chowdhry Mohammad Ramzan, G.A.Mir, Harshdev Singh, M.Y.Tarigami, Engineer Rashid, Nazir Ahmed Gurezi, T. Namgyal, Ashwani Kumar, Abdul Gaffar Sofi and Ashok Kumar.