Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday
said the Union government had chalked out a concrete plan to reduce the
input cost in agriculture and provide farmers better returns for their
produce.
“We have resolved to double the income of
farmers in next over 5 years. The government is giving priority to the
enterprises linked to agricultural sector so as to achieve this target,”
the Minister said at a press conference here.
Soil health cards
“We
are taking a number of initiatives to minimise the cost of agricultural
production...With this goal in mind, 14 crore farmers in the country
are being given soil health cards.” The government, he said, had
launched the ‘Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana’ to promote organic
farming.
“Neem-coated urea, improved varieties of
seeds and planting material, and schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri
Krishi Sinchayee Yojana have been introduced and farmers are also being
provided agricultural loans on concessional rate.”
Mr. Singh said norms related to disaster relief been altered to help farmers affected by natural calamities.
“The
discrepancies existing in crop insurance schemes have been removed and a
new scheme called Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojana has been
launched...The concept of ‘one nation and one mandi [market]’, , which
was a long pending marketing reform, has been taken ahead.”
‘Great strides made’
A
new National AgroForestry scheme had been initiated for planting trees
over meadows, the Minister said, adding that the dairy and fisheries
sectors had made greater strides in terms of growth and development in
the last two years.
Source : The Hindu
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