On the occasion of the transfer of the 9th instalment of PradhanMantri Kisan Samman Nidhi to farmers, the Prime Minister, among others, lauded the role being played by agri co-op Nafed in improving the lot of people.
The Prime Minister touched upon initiatives like Mission Honey-Bee and making saffron from Jammu & Kashmir in the NAFED shops. The honey mission has led to 700 crore export of honey resulting in extra income for farmers, he added.
It bears recalling that currently the NAFED is creating a network of honey FPOs across Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Around 65 FPOs are going to be the part of the honey corridor linking north-west to the north-eastern regions.
To harness the export potential of agricultural and processed food products of cooperatives as well as Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), the Nafed last month signed an MoU with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).
What is satisfying for the co-operative sector is the fact that the Prime Minister is keeping a close watch on the sector’s growth, as was reflected in his speech. He briefly mentioned Nafed’s activities in J&K where Nafed had signed an MoU with the state govt for the development of horticulture. Under this MoU, the NAFED will cover 5,500 hectares at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore in the next five years with a major focus on apple, walnut, cherry, pear and other significant horticulture produce.
On Monday the PM released an amount of more than Rs. 19,500 crores to more than 9.75 crores beneficiary farmer families. He also interacted with farmer beneficiaries during the event. Referring to the upcoming 75th Independence Day, he said that apart from being an occasion for pride it is also an opportunity for new resolutions. We have to take this opportunity to decide where we want to see India in the coming 25 years, he said.
He thanked farmers saying for the first time, India has reached among the top-10 countries of the world in terms of agricultural exports.
