Committed to doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022: Union Agriculture Minister
06 July 2020, New Delhi: Union Agriculture Minister Mr. Narendra Singh Tomar has said that the Government is committed to doubling farmers’ incomes by the year 2022 and has taken several important initiatives in this direction through various schemes and programmes.
He was speaking at the inauguration through video conference of the newly constructed guest house of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) at Gouria Karma near Barhi in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, and naming of its new administrative and academic building after Late Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee on his birth anniversary today.
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Mr. Tomar said that the 16-point action plan announced in the Budget 2020-21 and new legal provisions would help to achieve the target of doubling farmers’ incomes. He stressed on the need to liberalize agricultural markets, make agriculture competitive, providing handholding to agriculture-based activities and adopt stable agricultural practices and maximum new technology. Mr. Tomar said that in the Budget 2020-21, Government has provided Rs. 2.83 lakh crores for agricultural activities, irrigation and rural development, which is the highest-ever allocation.
Emphasizing on bringing about a second green revolution to provide sufficient foodgrains for the growing population of the country, the Minister said that there are unlimited possibilities in Jharkhand and North-Eastern states to bring about such a revolution. Greater attention needs to be given to growth of value addition, start-ups, small industries etc.
He said that IARI, New Delhi, better known as Pusa Institute has played a leading role in the country’s self-sufficiency in foodgrain production so much so that now the country has surplus production of foodgrains. Due to the presence of Pusa Institute, agricultural production has constantly grown in the neighbouring states like Punjab, Haryana and UP. Based on this, two new agricultural research institutes have been established in Jharkhand and Assam by Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi.
