Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with farmers via video conferencing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with farmers via video conferencing to highlight his government's major schemes aimed at boosting their income, and also address farm sector issues. The interaction with farmers was sixth such interaction, that began on the eve of Modi government completing four years in office. Talking with farmers, PM Modi said his government has doubled the budget for agriculture to Rs 2.12 lakh crore to achieve its objective of doubling farm income by 2022.
The PM said the four cornerstones of the government policy for raising farm income are cutting input cost, fair price for the crop, preventing the produce from rotting and creating alternate sources of income.
He said the budget for the agriculture sector has been doubled to Rs 2.12 lakh crore during first four years of his government compared to the previous five years of the UPA regime. The budget for 2018-19 fiscal has taken steps to provide farmers a price equivalent to 150 per cent of their cost of production, he said.
"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," he said.
To ensure farmers get the right price for their crops, online platform e-NAM has been started to eliminate middlemen, PM Modi added.
WATCH: PM Modi's interaction with farmers
Highlights:
10:58 am: India can only develop when villages, farmers prosper. Our country will be empowered if the farmers are empowered, says PM Modi.
10:32 am: The government is promoting organic farming in the country. We aim to develop North-East as the hub of organic farming. At present, nearly 22 lakh hectare land is under organic farming, says PM Modi while interacting farmers of Sikkim, a state that has made a mark in organic farming.
10:18 am: Farmers from Karnataka are sharing their experiences with PM Modi. They are speaking about how soil health cards have benefitted them.
10:15 am: Farmers are now working cohesively using Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO). It helps them to obtain agriculture materials and tools on less price: PM Modi
10:05 am: It feels great to see that today our farmers are opting to use modern machines and techniques in farming, says PM Modi
09:55 am: I always encourage farmers to adopt drip irrigation system. This would lessen the trouble that our farmers have to face in irrigating their crop land. Per drop, more crop should be our motto, PM Modi tells farmers.
09:44 am: Now, middlemen can't take away the hard-earned profit of farmers . There has been record production of milk, fruits, vegetables in the country: PM Modi
09:40 am: The agriculture sector has developed rapidly in the last 48 months. We approved a sum of over Rs 2 lakh crore in the Union Budget, says PM Modi.
09:35 am: We aim to double farmers' income by 2022. For that we are facilitating proper assistance wherever required. We have faith in the farmers of India. Our government aims to provide farmers maximum price of their produce: PM Modi
09:30 am: It is a great moment for me to interact with our farmer brothers present at nearly 2 lakh Common Service Centers in over 600 districts of India: PM
In the previous interactions, the Prime Minister had heard beneficiaries of free cooking gas (LPG) scheme, financial inclusion initiative, start-up enterpreneurs, health scheme and Digitial India.
