The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi addressed a webinar on positive impact of Union Budget 2022 in Agriculture sector. He discussed the ways in which the Budget will contribute to strengthening agriculture sector.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a webinar on positive influence of Budget 2022 in agriculture sector and discussed the ways in which the Budget will contribute to strengthening sector.
The Webinar was focused on ‘Smart Agriculture’- Strategies for implementation.
In the beginning, the Prime Minister noted the third anniversary of the launch of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. “This scheme has become a strong support for the small farmers of the country. Under the scheme, almost 1.75 lakh crore rupees have been given to 11 crore farmers”, he said.
The Prime Minister talked about many new systems across seed to market and also about the reforms in the old systems in the agriculture sector. “In just 6 years agriculture budget has been increased manifold. Agriculture loans for farmers were also increased by two and half times in the last 7 years”, he added.
He pointed out that during the tough period of the pandemic, 3 crore farmers were given Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) as part of the special drive and the facility of KCC was extended to farmers engaged in Animal Husbandry and Fisheries.
As a result of these efforts, he said, farmers are giving record production and new records have been created in MSP purchases too. Due to encouragement to organic farming, said the Prime Minister, market for organic products has reached 11000 crore, with export rising to more than 7000 crore rupees from 2000 crore rupees 6 years ago.
The Prime Minister explained on the seven ways in which the Budget proposes to make agriculture modern and smart.
- The target is to undertake natural farming on mission mode within 5 kms on both the banks of the Ganges.
- Modern technology in agriculture and horticulture will be made available to the farmers.
- Emphasis has been laid on strengthening Mission Oil Palm to reduce the import of edible oil.
- New logistics arrangements will be made through PM Gati-Shakti plan for the transportation of agricultural products.
- Solution in the Budget is better organization of agri-waste management and increasing farmers’ income through waste to energy solutions.
- More than 1.5 lakh post offices will provide services like regular banking so that farmers are not troubled.
- Agri research and education syllabus will be changed as per demands of modern times with regard to skill development and human resource development.
The Prime Minister renowned year 2023 being recognized as “International Year of Millets” and called upon the corporate world to come forward in branding and promoting Indian millets.
He also asked major Indian missions abroad to organize seminars and other promotional activities to popularize the quality and benefits of Indian millets. The Prime Minister also asked for leveraging increasing awareness for environmental -friendly lifestyle and resulting market for natural and organic products.
He encouraged the KVKs to create awareness for natural farming by adopting a village each for promotion of natural farming. Modi emphasized the need for increased soil testing culture in India. Highlighting the government’s focus on the Soil Health Cards, he called upon the start-ups to come forwards to facilitate the practice of soil testing at regular interval.
Emphasizing revolutions in the irrigation field, the Prime Minister underlined government’s focus on ‘per drop, more crop’. He said there are many possibilities for the corporate world in this too.
The Prime Minister emphasizes that Artificial intelligence is going to completely change the trend related to agriculture and farming in the 21st century. Increasing use of drones in farming is part of this change.
The Prime Minister emphasized management of Agri-residue (parali). “For this, some new measures have been taken in this budget, due to which carbon emission will be reduced and farmers will also get income”, he said. He also asked to explore ways of using Agri-waste for packaging.
The webinar had an open discussion on five breakout sessions namely Natural Farming and its outreach, Emerging High-Tech and Digital Agri Ecosystem, Bringing Back Glory of Millets; Moving Towards Aatma-nirbharta in Edible Oil, Sahkarita Se Samridhi, Financing Investment in Value Chain Infrastructure in Agriculture & Allied Sector with Stakeholders of respective fields.
In his concluding remarks the agriculture minister suggested that the views given by all stakeholders will be uploaded on web portal of Ministry and more suggestions are welcome.