New Delhi, Feb 19 (UNI) Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Monday highlighted a seven-point strategy for doubling farmers' income by 2022 which focused on irrigation projects for ``har khet ko paani’’, provision of quality seeds to farmers, investment in warehousing and cold chains, promotion of value addition through food processing, creation of e-market, Fasal Bima Yojna and more funding for animal husbandry, horticulture and bee keeping.
Inaugurating a two-day `Agriculture 2022-Doubling Farmers Income Summit’, Mr Singh said to make agriculture policies income-centric instead of production-oriented, the Prime Minister had formed a committee in April 2016, to implement a comprehensive plan based on the seven-point strategy. Representatives from ministries of agriculture, animal husbandry and dairying, food processing and Niti Aayog were included on the panel.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the summit on Tuesday in which top officials from states, experts and agriculture scientists, private sector and NGOs are participating.
The minister said the government had initiated climate-smart agriculture under which a national-level project had been launched to make farmers aware and capable of adopting climate-friendly farming techniques.
``In a huge country like India with wide economic disparities, it is a challenge to ensure physical and economic access in the farm sector to remote and far-flung areas but the government’s policies and plans have yielded satisfactory results,’’ Mr Singh said.
The minister said the government was working towards increasing farmers’ income which is why agriculture budget this year was raised to Rs. 58,080 crore from Rs.51,576 crore in 2017-18.
In addition, an allocation of Rs 2,000 crore for Agri Market Development Fund was made, to stress the importance of the retail market in agriculture marketing. Through Grameen Retail Agriculture Markets (GRAM), infrastructure of 22,000 rural haats and 585 Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees will be developed.
Among those who attended the summit were Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Dev Vrat, Union Agriculture Ministers of State Parshottam Rupala, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Krishna Raj, Deputy Chairman of Niti Aayog Rajiv Kumar, Union Agriculture Secretary SK Pattanayak and Director-General of Indian Council of Agriculture Research Trilochan Mohapatra.
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