Addressing a farmers’ meet in Ahmedabad on Monday Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said that now Narmada’s water will be delivered to 53,215 hectare land of farmers of 164 villages troubled by the problem of irrigation, which will benefit lakhs of people. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and many others attended the event.
Shah said Narmada’s water would come through the canal and if farmers would be able to produce three crops on this 70,000 hectare land, this area would be full of prosperity. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Government of Gujarat has included 164 villages of Fatewadi, Kharicat and Nalkantha region under Narmada Command Area to eliminate the problems in irrigation, Shah added.
Previous governments had stopped the Narmada scheme from 1964 based on one or another excuse, but when Shri Narendra Modi became the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he first worked as the Bhagirath of Gujarat to implement the Narmada scheme in Ahmedabad, he stated.
Shah said the PM has implemented many schemes to double the income of farmers in the last 8 years. Agricultural insurance has been made scientific, attractive and easier for the common people so that they can use it. Every year, Shri Narendra Modi has made arrangements to directly deposit Rs 6,000 in the bank accounts of small, big and marginal farmers.
The Union Cooperation Minister said that earlier there used to be black marketing of fertilizers or manure and farmers did not get their due, but Modi govt ended the black marketing of manure by introducing neem coated urea and is now promoting natural farming.
Shah requested all the farmers to adopt natural farming. He requested the youth of Nalakantha to talk to five or ten progressive farmers doing natural farming in their village and know their experiences about natural farming.
He also talked of the upcoming format of PACS and said now they will also be able to work as FPOs. These divisions will now be able to take over gas agency, they will also be given priority in petrol pumps, distribution of water and will also be able to do the work of PCO.
He said that soon we are going to form a new multistate co-operative society which will act as an export house and export the produce of the farmers and the profit will go into the bank account of the farmer. Apart from this, there is no system of marketing, certification and testing for natural farming at present, hence we are moving towards creating such a cooperative society for the proper testing of both the soil and its produce and its branding with Amul.
