Agriculture Fair draws huge foot falls; farmers enchanted with drones

Thousands of farmers thronged the three-day mega agriculture fair, exhibition and training programmes, organised by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh government and district administration, at Morena, Madhya Pradesh.

On this occasion, Chief Guest, Governor of Gujarat, Shri Acharya Devvrat, addressing the farmers over video conference, said that natural farming system paves the way for prosperity for the farmers. Just as plants grow naturally in the forest, in the same way, farmers can increase the fertility of their land along with increasing production by cultivating cow-based natural method in the fields.

In the programme, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and the local MP, Narendra Singh Tomar, MoS Kailash Choudhary, MP Minister of State Shri Bharat Singh Kushwaha, CGM of NABARD, Nirupam Mehrotra and agricultural scientists were present, while Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia also joined the event virtually.

On this occasion, Union Minister Tomar launched the NABARD project at Pahargarh for the development of tribals of the area, as well as laid the foundation stone of a hitech Nursery and Tissue Culture Lab for organic seed farm in Morena.

Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Choudhary said that several major initiatives have been undertaken for the welfare of farmers and the government has taken several measures, including the formation of 10,000 new FPOs, especially for small-holding farmers.

During the three-day mega Krishi Mela, farmers took advantage of various training sessions throughout the day. There will be training-sessions tomorrow also. In today’s main programme, the Union Minister Shri Tomar inaugurated a project of NABARD at a cost of Rs.3.75 crore for the development of tribals and distributed toolkits to tribal families.

Awareness programmes for Self Help Group women, income generating activities like mushroom cultivation, bee keeping, papad making, awareness programmes on cleanliness and bank linkage etc. activities have been sanctioned under the development of women. Approval has also been given for health camps, livestock health camps, vegetable gardens and formation of FPOs etc.

The objective is the integrated development of tribal families and creating a new model for their sustainable income generation based on participation and utilization of capacities of the area and tribal needs. Capacity building by creating tribal institutions at the village level, which can participate in policy making for the communities and improve their socio-economic status, are also among its aims.

 Revamping the land in the rugged area by the Union Agriculture Ministry, Tomar laid the foundation stone of a Hi-Tech Nursery and Tissue Culture Lab for an organic seed farm operated by the National Seed Corporation at Morena.For this, Madhya Pradesh State Government has allotted 885.34 hectares of land in Gadora, Jakhauna, Rithora Khurd and Gorkha villages to the Union Agriculture Ministry.

Approval has been given to set up the tissue culture lab at a cost of Rs. 2.5 crore under the MIDH. This lab will produce around 30 lakh saplings a year and will help revolutionize the commercial agriculture sector by enabling large scale propagation of high yielding and disease-free plants.

During the three-day mega agricultural fair and exhibition being organized in Morena, 143 different stalls have been set up, where farmers are getting information with enthusiasm. Through the exhibition, farmers are being motivated for improved farming and agricultural innovation.

Promoting innovative practices in modern farming, the demonstration of farmer drones in this fair is also being keenly watched by the farmers. Tomar made a special request to the farmers to witness the drone exhibition. Farmers from far flung areas are also coming to see the exhibition and are delighted to see agricultural implements and other products. This three-day agricultural fair and exhibition will conclude today on November 13.