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Investment and innovation should improve in agriculture like other sectors: Shri Narendra Modi

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25 December, 2020, New Delhi, IN: The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi today released the next instalment of financial benefits under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi through video conference.

Also Read: PM to release next instalment under PM-KISAN on 25 December

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister highlighted about the transaction Rs. 18,000 Crores directly in the bank accounts of more than 9 Crores farmers’ families in the country at the click of a button today. He added ever since this scheme started, more than Rs. 1 Lakh 10 Thousand Crores have reached the accounts of farmers.

The Prime Minister said the Government worked at aiming to reduce the input cost of the farmers. He listed some farmer-centric initiatives of the Government like Soil Health Cards, Neem Coating of Urea, Schemes for distribution of Solar Pumps which helped in reducing the input cost for the farmers. He added the government tried to ensure that the farmers have a better crop insurance cover. Today, crores of farmers are getting the benefit of the PM crop Insurance Scheme.

The Prime Minister said the government tried to ensure that the country’s farmers get a fair price for the crop. He said the Government fixed one and a half times the production cost as MSP for the farmers as per the recommendations of the long-standing Swaminathan Committee report. He added the number of crops for which MSP is available were also increased.

The Prime Minister said that the Government aimed to open new markets for the farmers to sell their crop. He said the Government added more than a thousand agricultural mandis of the country online. Among these, more than Rs. 1 Lakh Crore have been traded. He said the Government worked towards forming groups of small farmers so that they can work as a collective force in their region. Today, a campaign is underway to form more than 10,000 Farmers’ Producers’ Organizations – FPOs in the country, they are being given financial help.

The Prime Minister said through these agricultural reforms better options were provided to the farmers. After these laws farmers can sell their produce to whomever they want. They can sell their produce wherever they get the right price. He said after the new laws, farmers can sell their produce at MSP or sell it at market or export or sell it to the merchant, or sell it in another state, or sell it through FPO or be part of the value chain of biscuits, chips, jam, other consumer products.

The Prime Minister said now the time has come for Brand India to establish itself in the agricultural markets of the world with equal prestige.

Highlighting the main objective of the programme, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare outlined that Rs. 18,000 Crore have been transacted into the accounts of 9 Crore farmers’ families. Shri Tomar emphasized that under the leadership of PM, various schemes are being implemented at the grass root level to strengthen the agricultural sector of the country.

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