Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday interacted with the farmers through NaMo app. During the interaction, PM Modi showcased his government’s “unprecedented” work in the agriculture sector, including doubling of the budget to Rs 2.12 lakh crore by 2022. Modi in his outreach programme of direct interaction spoke to farmers from over 600 districts via video-conferencing, highlighting the government interventions right from seeds to market that is aimed at addressing farm distress.
Here are the top quotes from PM Modi's interaction with farmers:
# We have decided to double farmers income by 2022... When I talked about doubling of farmers income, there were many people who made fun that this is not possible and difficult. They created an atmosphere of doom. But we decided as I had full faith in farmers.
# The government, through an extensive and balanced policy, is aiming to provide inputs like quality seeds, fertilisers, water and electricity as well as markets for increasing farmers' income.
# The budget allocation for the agriculture sector in 5 years of the previous government was Rs 1.21 lakh crore. This has been increased to Rs 2.12 lakh crore during 2014-19, which is almost double. This clearly reflects our commitment to farmers welfare.
# Our effort is to provide farmers assistance at all stage of agriculture -- at the time of sowing, after sowing and at the time of harvesting.
# To ensure farmers get the right price for their crops, an online platform e-NAM has been started to eliminate middlemen. As many as 22,000 rural markets are also being linked to wholesale mandis.
# The government is also giving special attention to allied sectors like fisheries, dairy and bee-keeping to boost farmers income.
# Farmers should get full credit for ensuring the country's food security but rued that "from the beginning, farmers were left to fend for themselves" which resulted in their shrinking prosperity.
# We have reduced premium and scope of insurance has been widened which has helped in increasing the insurance coverage by 60-65 per cent.
# The government has provided soil health cards to 12.5 crore farmers in the last four years, helping farmers to boost yields and cut input cost.
# At least 21 lakh hectares have been brought under organic farming as against 7 lakh hectares in 2013-14.
PM Modi has been interacting with different sections of the society through his Narendra Modi app as a part of BJP's 'Sampark for Samarthan' campaign.
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