"The motive of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sinchai Yojana will be to take irrigation water to each and every agricultural field in the country. Farm productivity could not be increased until water is available for irrigation. We are chalking out the details of the scheme," Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said here today.
"Productivity is also linked to the health of the soil. High yield is possible only when soil is healthy. The central government will issue Soil Health Card to farmers in the country. Help of scientists and agriculture students will be taken in this mission to check the condition and fertility of fields," Singh said at a felicitation programme at his maiden visit to Bihar after becoming a union minister.
The two schemes, he said, were parts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda to strengthen the country in five years, and this could happen only when the condition of farm and farmers in the country was improved.
According to the union government's statistics, only 44 per cent of the 14 crore hectares of arable land in the country is irrigated. The rest depends on monsoon, he said.