The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh has said that development and upliftment of farmers is the first priority of the government and to achieve it, the government aim is to double the income of farmers by 2022. Singh said this on the inauguration of three days Krishi Unati Mela being held in Indian Institute of Agriculture Research. On this occasion, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General, ICAR, Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries (DADF), Deputy Director General, Director, Indian Institute of Agriculture Research, scientist and officials were present. Information was given of crops and new species of cattle, special schemes and programmes prepared keeping in view of the protection, empowerment and their progress in the fair.
Singh said on this occasion that it is essential to maintain fertility of the land for sustainable agriculture development. Prime Minister launched soil health card in February 2015 itself and till now 460 soil testing laboratory has been sanctioned. The government has made it mandatory the production of neem coated urea in May 2015. Further the cost of DAP and MOP has been reduced. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana has been launched to safeguard the farmers from natural disaster like drought, flood etc. It includes cereals, oilseeds and commercial, horticulture crops. About 366.64 lakh farmers have been covered in kharif 2016.
Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister said that Ministry has made arrangements for conducting whole sale market through e-platform (e-NAM) in the whole country so that the farmers may sell their products at reasonable price. To overcome the problem of drought, Prime Minister Krishi Sichae Yojna has been launched under which water is being provided to every farm. To encourage agriculture and to strengthen the rural livelihood many scheme of agriculture and farmer’s welfare have been launched. The main schemes are Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichae Yojana, agriculture mechanisation, national agriculture marketing, kisan suvidha mobile app, Rashtirya Krishi Vikas Yojna, Fisheries Developmnent Management, Integrated Agriculture System Model and more.
Singh said that the country is self-sufficient in foodgrains and exporting foodgrains to the other countries. India is number one in milk production in the world. Milk production has increased from 137.61 million tonnes during 2013-14 to 146.31 million tonnes during 2014-15 and during 2015-16 milk production was 155.49 million tonnes. New scheme National Bovine Productivity Mission has been started in November, 2016 with an amount of `825 crore. A production of 82,930 million eggs was made during year 2015-16. Seeing the unlimited scope of development in fisheries, the government has called for Blue Revolution in the fisheries sector. For Blue Revolution scheme, central budget of `3000 crore has been earmarked for the period of five years. The number of Krishi Vigyan Kendra has reached to 665 so that the farmers may adopt from training to agriculture technique. Cabinet has approved `3960 crore for running the Krishi Vigyan Kendras. Prime Minister, Narnedra Modi has given special emphasis on lab to land, water, soil productivity, food processing. Prominent among them are Farmer First, Arya, Student Ready, Mera Gaon, Mera Gaurav.
On this occasion the regional level Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Rashtriya Krishi Vigyan Protsahan Puraskar were distributed. Ramkrishna Ashram, Nimpith District — South 24 Parganas, Sundarbans won the National Award at the event.