The Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar has said budgetary provision has been made to provide each FPO a sum of Rs 15 lakh for all farming related activities ranging from sowing, harvesting to distribution and marketing.
The Government is determined to boost FPOs and will soon register 10,000 of them in order to promote cooperative farming. He was addressing the 91st Annual General Meeting of the ICAR Society.
Tomar, who is also the President of the ICAR Society, said an ambitious nationwide scheme has been launched to vaccinate 53 crore cattle and goats under Mission mode. Besides, target has been set for doubling of Fisheries harvesting and export and Milk production, he said.
The Minister also called for wider dissemination of Government schemes so that the benefits percolate down to the lowest level among the farmers. For instance, under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), he said, there were apprehensions that Insurance companies gained more than the farmers, besides reports of malpractices at lower level during inspection.
With a view to alleviating such concerns, the crop insurance scheme has been turned voluntary now and premium also remains the same, – between one-and-a-half percent to 2%, he said.
Tomar said 58% of those who availed PMFBY crop cover were farmers who had availed crop loans. However, the fact is, as against the total sum of Rs.13,000 crore premium collected by insurance companies, a total of Rs.58,000 crore Insurance benefits have been paid to farmers, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal called for synergy between the various R&D institutions under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Universities and academia, PSUs and Industry so that the huge investments being made by each of them yields bigger returns.
Goyal called upon agricultural scientists to work towards a stage when our agriculture breaks free of the vagaries of nature. He said the Kisan Rail has been announced in this year’s budget and the train with frozen containers will be a big step in transportation and marketing of agriproducts.
Addressing the gathering, Parshottam Rupala, MoS for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, called for increased digitization for targeted agriculture subsidies and rural schemes. He also called for scaling up PPP model with ICAR R&D Extension programme.
Calling for more food processing industries to boost farmers’ income, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, MoS for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, said the agricultural laboratories should be made common property with the participation of all concerned including students and farmers.
On the occasion, Shri Tomar and other dignitaries released a number of ICAR publications and various kits and Mobile Apps developed by the ICAR.
