In a novel experiment Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh interacted with media persons of about ten states through video conferencing on Tuesday. Singh also webcast his show live on face book for his followers. Indian Cooperative also participated and asked a question on the future of Nafed to Singh on this occasion.
Singh lauded the role of media and said the media has been playing an important role in farmers’ welfare collecting information about them which help the government address farmers’ problems.
On the Indian Cooperative correspondent’s questions on Nafed, Singh was not as forthcoming as is expected of him. His curt reply was “the matter is under consideration”. Incidentally a Nafed delegation met his junior minister Mohan Bhai Kundariya almost at the same time when the high-voltage video conferencing was on air.
Singh mostly highlighted various schemes of the govt such as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yozana, Soil Health Card implemented by the government for the welfare of farmers. Our government had also increased the budget allocation for the farmers. We are focusing on how we can increase farm production at minimum cost, so farmers can earn more and more profit, he added.
We will soon set up a Central University of agriculture, he added. While answering the question , Singh said a
monitoring system been put in place for the schemes being implemented by the central government for farmers, Singh said , we are working with full transparency and every week we are doing video conferencing and have set up many web portals to identify challenges at the grassroots level. He further said ” I had visited more than 100 Krishi Vigyan Kendras.”
While answering the question asked by the journalist from West Bengal about the release of fund for West Bengal, doing a little number-crunching Singh explained how much fund has been allocated and said we are urging the state government to use the fund in a proper manner.
When queried about the delay in the payment of compensation to farmers, Singh said our team goes and calculates the total loss incurred by farmers and it takes 15-30 days in giving the report to the ministry.
