The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi addressed a webinar on effective implementation of Budget provisions regarding Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare through video conference, in which some of the cooperative leaders including IFFCO Chairman and Nafed Chairman were invited.
Dileep Sanghani, NCUI President also attended the webinar, though NCUI- being a training organization was not in the list of invitees. The invite was restricted to co-op marketing federations, sources say.
In a comprehensive talk on the subject, the Prime Minister covered every aspect of agrarian economy which included FPOs, cooperatives, fisheries, dairy, SeaWeed, Beeswax and most of all processing of agricultural produce of small and marginal farmers and making them exportable.
Stressing the point, Modi said it is critical that farmers should have the storage facilities near their villages. He called for the improvement of the system of taking the produce from the fields to processing units and emphasized that hand holding of these units be done by the Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).
Small farmers are at the center of the govt’s vision. Their empowerment will greatly help in ridding Indian agriculture from many problems, felt the PM. The webinar was attended, among others by experts from Agriculture, Dairy, Fisheries sector, stakeholders from Public, Private & Cooperative sector and Representatives from Banks funding the rural economy participated. The Union Minister for Agriculture was present in the webinar.
PM highlighted some of the provisions for Agriculture in this Union Budget like increasing the Agriculture Credit target to Rs 16,50,000 crores with priority to Animal husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries sector, increasing Rural Infrastructure Fund to Rs 40,000 crores, doubling the allocation for micro irrigation, expanding the scope of Operation Green Scheme to 22 perishable products and linking 1000 more mandis with e-NAM.
Modi said the provision of credit has also been more than doubled compared to 6-7 years ago and the arrangements with 10,00 FPOs being built in the country is strengthening the Co-operatives.
He stressed on Food Processing Revolution and Value Addition in the 21st century. It needs to be developed in every agriculture related sector such as food grains, vegetables, fruits, fisheries etc.
“We have to expand our country’s agriculture sector into the global market for processed food. We must increase the number of Agro-Industries Clusters near the village so that the people of the village can get employment related to farming in the village itself” said the Prime Minister.
He envisioned that we have to move towards a scenario where agro based products move from the village to the cities and industrial products reach villages from cities.
He talked of Kisan rail in this context and said they are a strong medium of cold storage for the entire country. Creating clusters for fruits and vegetables processing in the districts across the country and upgradation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises and Micro Food Processing Units are needed for the hour.
Modi also talked about using modern technology to help small farmers with cheap and effective options for hourly rental of tractors, straw machines or other farm machinery. He talked of trucks and other aggregators in this context.
The Prime Minister emphasized that contract farming has been present in India in some form or the other for a very long time. He stressed the need to ensure that contract farming doesn’t remain just a business concept but we should also fulfil our responsibility towards the land.
