Asserting that his Government's first aim was to win the trust of the farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said his Government wants to integrate technology in the agriculture sector for the farmers' welfare.
Prime Minister Modi while addressing a Kisan Maha Sammelan (mega farmer’s convention) at Sherpur in neighbouring Sehore district said, “The Madhya Pradesh Government under the leadership of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, did a lot of work for the farmers. The State Government and farmers of the State worked together to script history.”
"This is not a small thing to win an award in agriculture continuously for four years," the Prime Minister added, while highlighting the agriculture success under Chouhan's leadership.
Placing the guidelines of the crop insurance scheme in the presence of the farmers of Madhya Pradesh, Prime Minister Modi said this scheme has the solution to problems which the farmers face. "When Atalji was Prime Minister, first time such a scheme was thought about and an effort was made to change the lives of the farmers. But when the Government of Atalji changed, the scheme was modified and the farmer started running away from crop insurance scheme. Our first aim was to win the trust of the farmers," Modi added.
He said, "This scheme has the solution to problems the farmers face. Farmers were not joining the crop insurance scheme. Even estimates about this scheme were made through a few villages only. We have decided to integrate technology in this scheme, do proper surveys and ensure 25 percent of amount is paid immediately...I urge you to trust this scheme and join the scheme, as the compensation to farmers has increased three fold."
Modi said, "The age-old wisdom and technology must meet. When we talk about technology and a digital India, we see the welfare of the farmers at the core. Our start up India movement is not restricted to IT. There is scope for this in agriculture sector also. Per drop, more crop is what we are giving importance to. We initiated several measures for sugarcane farmers. Our dream is to increase the reach of the soil health card scheme."
He said this scheme will come into effect from the upcoming Kharif season. "It envisages a uniform premium of two percent to be paid by farmers for Kharif crops, and 1.5 per cent for Rabi crops. The premium for annual commercial and horticultural crops will be five per cent," Prime Minister Modi said.
"There is no upper limit on the government's subsidy for this scheme. The provision of capping the premium rate, which existed in earlier schemes, and resulted in low claims being paid to farmers, has been done away with. Farmers will get claims against the full sum insured, without any reduction," he added.
The Prime Minister also distributed soil health cards, and crop insurance settlement claims to select beneficiaries on the occasion.