To improve the plight of the Farmers in the country, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged his officials to explore the possibility of involving students in competitions like hackathons so that they can participate in finding technical solutions to problems faced by the Farmers.
Addressing the concluding day conference on doubling the farmers` income he said that his Government has been working hard to reduce the input costs, to increase productivity of farmland, to ensure fair price and better market access for the produce, and to create alternate sources of income for farmers.
The Government is also drawn up plans to computerize all 63,000 agriculture cooperative societies in the country within the next three years to smoothen credit flow to farmers. He also informed the gathering, that comprised farmers, economists, scientists and policy makers apart from ministers from his cabinet and officials from different ministries, that the latest Budget has increased credit available for agriculture to Rs.11 lac crore.
The Prime Minister also mentioned the use of neem-coated urea, for instance, he said, reduced the fertilizer use and improved the efficiency of farmland. Similarly the Government has so far issued 11 crore soil health cards to farmers which not only cut down the fertilizer use by 8-10 percent,but also increased the productivity by 5-6 percent.
The Prime Minister has also emphasized that on developing micro-irrigation facilities and on promoting solar irrigation pumps, which could help farmers generate additional income by feeding excess power to the grid. PM further added that the last year farmers across the country received Rs.11000 crores in claims, which was double of what was paid in the past.
The Prime Minister further added that 22,000 `Grameen Haats` would be upgraded with appropriate infrastructure, and integrated with the e-NAM platform.
Chander Mohan
Krishi Jagran
