Paradigm Shift: Tomar for private investment in agriculture

Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar has emphasized on increasing private investment in the field of agriculture. This will lead to self-reliance and prosperity in the country, he emphasized.

Addressing an international webinar organized by Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut and a national webinar organized by Junagadh Agricultural University, Tomar said

also called upon scientists to contribute in increasing agricultural production and mitigate difficulties.

Tomar said that in connection with attracting private investment in the agriculture sector, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has announced a provision of Rs One lakh crore for developing agricultural infrastructure.

Similar provisions have also been announced for the fisheries, animal husbandry, bee-farming, herbal farming, food processing etc, sectors. Tomar emphasized on soil health testing and appealed for creating awareness about this.

Tomar said that in food grain production, India is not only self-sufficient but also surplus. Farmers have demonstrated that they are capable of dealing with difficult challenges. But the growing population of the country is expected to reach 160 crores by the year 2050 and we need to brace up, he added.

He said plant breeders and scientists in India are faced with the challenge of increasing production of quality foodgrains and providing enough nutritional food to all Indians by undertaking progressive farming.

Bio-fortification strategy must also be used to develop high quality crop varieties having high protein, iron, zinc etc. nutritional content. For this, plant breeders have to use latest biotechnology methods in addition to traditional methods of farming, Tomar underlined.

In the webinar organized by Junagadh Agricultural University, the Union Agriculture Minister stressed on achieving better farm production with less water. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has said that unless the villages do not become self-reliant, the country cannot prosper. To strengthen the rural economy, agriculture has to prosper and also its sister concerns. When this happens, the country will be able to face all other challenges.

Tomar said despite the Coronavirus crisis the Indian farmers produced a bumper crop with the resources available in the rural areas, crop harvesting continued at normal pace during the lockdown.

Tomar also stressed on linking more and more farmers to the 10000 new Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) whose formation has been announced recently.