CHENNAI: Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh said on Monday that during the past four-and-half years, several significant decisions had been taken to improve the status and double the income of farmers.
For the first time, horticulture production has exceeded the foodgrain production, giving more benefit to the farmers and because of self-sufficiency in pulse production, its import had almost stopped while import duty on certain items has been increased.
Interacting with reporters on the sidelines of a function got up to honour agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan here, the minister said, “Previously, the agriculture schemes were production-centric. Now, the NDA government is implementing income-centric schemes. The value of horticultural produce is more than that of foodgrain produce. During 2017-18, horticultural production stands at a record 307 million tonnes while the agricultural production (foodgrains) stands at 284.83 million tonnes.”
The minister also said that during 2015-16, the pulses production stood at 16 million tonnes. During 2017-18, this has gone up to 25.23 million tonnes. Thus, India is moving towards self-sufficiency in pulses production.
The minister said the Modi government had constituted Dalwai Committee for doubling farmers’ income, based on the recommendations made by the MS Swaminathan Committee. This committee is submitting its report and recommendations once in three months.
In this connection, Singh pointed out that the total investment made by the previous UPA regime during 2009-2014 was Rs 1.21 lakh crore whereas the NDA government during the past four years had doubled the allocation by sanctioning Rs 2.11 lakh crore.
Other than budgetary allocations,the Centre has allocated infrastructure funds for various departments – dairy processing and infrastructure fund (Rs 10,881 crore), four long-term irrigation fund (Rs 40,000 crore), micro-irrigation (Rs 5,000 crore), fisheries and aquaculture (Rs 7,550 crore), veterinary (Rs 2,450 crore), etc.
For 23 e-markets, Rs 18.20 crore has been allocated. During that time, 12,000 hectares were covered under micro-irrigation scheme. This allocation has gone up to Rs 250 crore and the area covered has also gone up to Rs 1.25 lakh hectare. For Tamil Nadu, during 2014-15 alone, Rs 63.90 crore was allocated for micro-irrigation.
On the steps taken for promoting organic farming across the country, the Union minister said the NDA government had launched a comprehensive scheme to promote organic farming under the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana and Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region. In Tamil Nadu, 112 organic clusters have been formed. Fresh sanction has been given for 200 clusters more.
During 2013-14, 6.66 crore farmers have insured their crops under crop insurance scheme across the country. Of them, only 29 lakh are non-loanee farmers.
But during 2017-18, 10.51 crore farmers have enrolled themselves under the PM’s Fasal Bima Yojana scheme. Of them, 2.73 crore are non-loanee farmers. Under this scheme, Tamil Nadu had benefited the most.