HYDERABAD: If agriculture is linked with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, farmers’ income can be doubled, Amarjeet Sinha, secretary in the Union rural development ministry, has said.
Participating in a workshop organised jointly by Niti Aayog and state agriculture department hero on Tuesday, Sinha said the central government observed that NREGS helped farmers get better remuneration in some states.
He said farmers’ income can be doubled by reducing the cost of cultivation, providing better marketing facilities and construction of godowns.
The reduction of input costs too would help them. State governments should think of providing assets to farmers with NREGS funds, he said and added that the wages of agricultural labour remained static whereas the cost of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides went up considerably.
Chief secretary SK Joshi explained the schemes being launched for farmers like investment support scheme and life insurance scheme. State agriculture principal secretary C Parthasarathi and other officials attended the workshop.