Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu today stressed on the need to employ modern technology to make agriculture profitable and increase productivity.
Speaking at an event here, he expressed concern over the rising cases of farmer suicides in the country and said, "Farmers, the backbone of the country, have been committing suicide due to crop failure and debts."
The Union minister said the government has launched Kisan television channel to keep the farmers informed about modern technologies and asked the private news channels to devote some time on agriculture.
"To help the farmers take the produce to the market, the Centre has allocated Rs 19,000 crore for PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna) to provide road connectivity to 65,000 habitations. Similarly, Rs 35,984 crore have been allocated to agriculture, while Rs 9 lakh crore earmarked for crop loans this year," Naidu said.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojna, an outlay of Rs 50,000 crore has been made for the next five years for better use of water resources, he added.
"Improved insurance coverage to crops is being ensured under the PM Fasal Bima Yojna," Naidu said, while pointing towards other initiatives such as soil health cards, organic farming, agri-markets, Kisan Suvidha and better minimum support prices.
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Venkaiah said the media, which lays stress on breaking news, cinema and political activities, should give equal importance to developments in the agricultural sector.
He suggested that the Centre and the states should come out with a comprehensive policy on how to make agriculture a viable activity.
States should work on farmer-centric initiatives to increase farm income from agriculture, the minister said.
Expressing apprehension that agriculture will soon become extinct as farmers are averse to undertake farming due to losses, the minister said, adding that the government should make it viable for the farmers by providing basic infrastructure facilities.
"Though the Swaminathan Committee had suggested some recommendations on how to make agriculture viable, only a few recommendations have been implemented so far.
"Instead of providing free power supply to farmers, the governments should concentrate on providing quality and uninterrupted power supply to the agriculture sector first," Naidu said.
He also underlined the need for providing rural infrastructure facilities like road linkage, transportation etc. To ensure better market price for farm produce.
"It is imperative to introduce e-markets to facilitate farmers to buy and sell their produce and in this regard the Centre has proposed to network all the market yards," the minister said.
