Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said that agriculture is very important for the country as there is a large population engaged in agriculture. He stated that strengthening agriculture and the rural economy will strengthen India so that the country can face challenges victoriously. The government is also committed to realizing the Prime Minister's vision of doubling farmers income by 2022.
He said that government is committed to strengthening the economy and infrastructure of rural areas so that every facility is available to villagers at their door-step. He lauded the efforts of farmers, Agricultural Scientists and the Central and State Governments for achieving self sufficiency in foodgrains, horticulture and animal husbandry. He suggested that the disparity between small farmers and big farmers should be bridged and benefits of technology and various schemes should reach the small and marginal farmers.
The minister told the audience the greatest challenge in present times is to provide farmers the correct price for their produce. For this the Prime Minister has envisioned e-NAM (Electronic National Agriculture Market) that envisages a pan-India e-trading facility for agricultural commodities through integration of existing APMCs. Market integration through e-platform facilitates transparent and competitive bidding by enabling inter-mandi trade of the agricultural produce thereby giving advantage to the farmers for better price discovery. Presently 585 markets across 16 states and 2 Union territories have been integrated on e-platform. It is expected that 415 other mandis will soon be integrated. On this portal more than 1.65 crore farmers and 1.27 lakh traders have registered. Through this platform trading of Rs. 91000 crores has already taken place and in the near future it is expected to reach 1 lakh crores.
Strengthening the e-NAM platform and making it reliable is the constant effort of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The Minister said that it is priority of the government that small farmers in large numbers join this platform. On strengthening Agri- Logistics the Minister suggested that Agri- Logistics starts with harvesting. Along with harvesting cleaning, grading, segregating, quality inspection, packaging and marketing have to be done so that the journey from production to consumer is completed. The workshop addressed all these problems that farmers face and the suggestions given by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
He also emphasized that technology should reach the farmer, micro irrigation should be used to save water, there should be less usage of chemical fertilizers, input cost should be reduced, farmers should get a good price via MSP. He said that schemes like PM-KisanSammanYojana, MaN-DhanYojana, PM-FasalBimaYojana are showing good results. He expressed hope that through this workshop the entire food value chain could be linked resulting in an effective Agri-Logistics infrastructure which will help strengthening e-NAM for the farmers.
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