Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar has said that natural farming is the need of the hour, in which the cost is less and the produce fetches more price. Natural farming will now be part of agricultural education.
Tomar said this as the chief guest at the National Workshop on Natural Farming in Gwalior, organized by the Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI), Jabalpur and Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Agricultural University, Gwalior. The government is making efforts in this direction to soon include natural farming methods in agricultural education curriculum, he added.
Tomar said that today the need is to follow the principles of a healthy mind, healthy food, healthy agriculture and healthy human beings. For this, one should move towards natural farming. Natural farming is the farming of perfection. Livestock has an important contribution to this.
“The dung and cow urine of a native cow is sufficient for a common farmer to work in natural farming. If the country adopts natural farming, then cows will not be seen on the roads, but they will be used properly. Now the country is moving in this direction. 100% natural farming is being done in Dang district of Gujarat. In Himachal too, farmers are fast moving in this direction. M.P. has planned it in 5,000 villages”, the Minister stated.
“The farmer does not work only to get livelihood from agriculture, but he does farming to feed over 130 crore people of the country. India has become a country which provides food grains to the world. Today many friendly countries of the world look towards India that if the food production in India is good, then India will help us in bad times”, said Tomar.
The Union Minister said that along with this the Government of India is making efforts to increase the income of the farmers. The MSP has been increased one-and-a-half times, while crores of farmers are being given Rs. 6,000 every year through the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi. So far, more than Rs 2.16 lakh crore has been deposited directly into the bank accounts of the farmers. Under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Rs 1.24 lakh crore was given to the farmers in lieu of crop loss. Farmers have been disbursed Rs. 18 lakh crore through the Kisan Credit Cards. Farmers meet. The Central Government is making every possible effort to empower the farmers.
In the programme, Madhya Pradesh Minister of State for Horticulture and Food Processing, and Narmada Valley Development, Bharat Singh Kushwaha; Dr Ved Prakash Chahal, Deputy Director General (Agriculture Extension), Indian Council of Agricultural Research; Dr Arvind Shukla, Vice Chancellor of Rajmata Vijayaraje Agricultural University, Gwalior; Director of ATARI Jabalpur, Dr. Shyamranjan Singh, along with public representatives and scientists-officers were present.