The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar has said that the Government of India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, is working towards the development of villages-poor-& farmers and making their lives better. Prime Minister Shri Modi is constantly striving towards increasing the credibility of the country on the global political forum, expanding Make in India, conserving our heritage and taking Mother India to the pinnacle of ultimate glory. Under the leadership of PM, monumental work has been done in a planned manner towards ending inequalities and bringing the poor into the mainstream.
Shri Tomar said this in his address to the 8th General Meeting of MahaFPC in Pune today as the Chief Guest. Shri Tomar said that the development journey of any nation cannot be complete unless the poor of that country are free from inequality. Similar was the situation in the country, almost half of the population did not have bank accounts. Crores of families had no toilets, no electricity, no gas cylinders in their kitchen, no houses to live in. The Prime Minister took the initiative to remove these inequalities.
The houses of the poor are being built under the PM Awas Yojana, toilets are being built for every family, Jan-Dhan accounts created, electricity provided under Saubhagya scheme, LPG cylinders supplied to every household through the Ujjwala scheme and food grains delivered to all villages. At the same time, work is being done to eliminate inequalities by providing livelihood to lakhs of sisters of poor families through Self-Help Groups. Shri Tomar said that in 2015 the Prime Minister had said that farmers’ income should be doubled.
Towards this goal, the Central and State governments, along with FPOs and all other organizations related to Agriculture, worked together, which is benefiting the farmers of the country today. The income of lakhs of farmers has increased from more than double to five to ten times. Shri Tomar said that for the first time in the country a scheme has been launched which accords dignity to the farmers. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme, so far more than Rs 2 lakh crore has been deposited in the bank accounts of 11.5 crore farmers.
Farmers of Maharashtra get Rs. 22.5 crore under this scheme. Not all farmers were getting the benefit of crop insurance scheme, for which the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana was implemented, today crores of farmers across the country are benefitting. More than 50 lakh farmers in Maharashtra are covered in this scheme. Farmers losses across the country have been compensated through this scheme, worth claims amounting to Rs. 1.22 lakh crore. He said that the government set up the Agri Infra Fund worth Rs. One lakh crore to boost agricultural infrastructure. Besides, packages worth Rs. 1.5 lakh crore have been rolled out for Agriculture and allied works in the villages. Projects worth Rs. 14,000 crores have already been approved from under the Agri Infra Fund. Its benefits will start percolating to the farmers in the coming days.
Shri Tomar said that there are 86 percent small farmers in the country; in order to empower them 10,000 new FPOs are being constituted. The government is trying to provide all the necessary facilities to the farmers. There is a need to ramp up the transportation facility and ensure remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce. Work on digital agriculture is going on. When this is completed, the imbalance seen in the Agriculture sector will end, transparency will follow and the imbalance in the prices will be overcome. Besides, it will help provide advisories to farmers about new farming and plantation techniques and climate etc.
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