The 29th Regional Workshop of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar at Morena, Madhya Pradesh today. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Tomar said that the field of agriculture is vast and challenging, it is not an end-to-end task, it will continue to work from generation to generation. The contribution of all KVKs and agricultural scientists in the development of agriculture in the country is and will always be exceptional.
Union Minister Shri Tomar said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi wants people to be attracted towards agriculture, for this encouragement has been given to scientists and farmers along with everyone else. The state of our agricultural landscape in the world is good. India is an agricultural country and we are a special nation from the point of view of food productivity. While discussing the interests of the farmers, he said that today the farmer is fully aware. Referring to the schemes being run by the Central Government for the farmers, he said that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is no less than a boon for the farmers, every farmer should take advantage of it. In the last 6 years, a compensation of Rs 1.24 lakh crore has been given to the farmers under this scheme.
Shri Tomar said that it is the responsibility of our agricultural scientists to find solutions to various challenges in the field of agriculture. Shri Tomar said that due to the progress being made under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, today many countries of the world are discussing with India on issues related to agri-food. Our country has been a leader in agricultural production, milk production, food processing in the world and is progressing continuously.
On this occasion Shri Abhay Mahajan, Organization Minister, Deendayal Research Institute, Chitrakoot, Vice Chancellor Prof. SK Rao, RVS Agricultural University, Gwalior, Vice Chancellor Prof. AK Singh, RLBK Agricultural University, Jhansi, Dr. V.P. Chahal, Deputy Director General (Agriculture Extension), ICAR etc. also addressed. In the programme, senior agricultural scientists and other officers from 81 KVKs of MP and Chhattisgarh including Dr. Y.P. Singh, Dr. D.P. Sharma, Dr. Ajay Verma, Dr. S.S. Tomar were present.
India hosted the Second Agriculture Ministerial-level meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) here today under the chairmanship of the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar. Agriculture ministers of Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand participated in the meeting.
While addressing the meeting through video conference, Shri Tomar urged the member countries to cooperate in developing a comprehensive regional strategy to strengthen cooperation for the transformation of agriculture. Referring to the importance of millet as a nutritious food and the efforts made by India to promote millet and its products during the International Year of Millets – 2023, he urged the member countries to adopt a conducive agricultural food system and a healthy diet for all. He asked participating countries to actively participate in India’s initiative to promote millet as a food. Shri Tomar said that natural and ecological farming should be promoted to conserve agricultural biodiversity and reduce the use of chemicals.
Shri Tomar said that along with digital farming and precision farming, initiatives under the ‘One Health’ approach are also taking shape in India. He emphasized the importance of cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors to ensure food security, nutrition, environmental sustainability and livelihood support, for which it is required to increase technical and economic cooperation to deal with the challenges of climate change, agro-biodiversity, microbial preventive resistance under the ‘One Health’ approach and other programmes.
Shri Tomar reiterated Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s statement at the 5th BIMSTEC Summit held in Colombo in March, 2022 on enhancing regional cooperation between BIMSTEC nations for food security, peace and prosperity in the region. At the same time, he expressed India’s commitment to promote agricultural productivity, food security and nutrition, sustainability, research and development and enhance cooperation with BIMSTEC in the areas of agri-business, climate change management, digital agriculture, etc.
The 2nd BIMSTEC Agriculture Ministerial Meeting adopted the Action Plan for Strengthening BIMSTEC Agricultural Cooperation (2023-2027). An MoU between the BIMSTEC Secretariat and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has been signed and approval has been given to bring Fisheries and Livestock sub-sectors under the Agricultural Working Group. BIMSTEC member countries appreciated India’s efforts to strengthen cooperation in agricultural research and development and for awarding six scholarships each for postgraduate and PhD programmes in agriculture.
The meeting was attended by the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Kailash Choudhary, Secretary, Department of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Dr. Himanshu Pathak, along with other senior officials of the Ministry.
BIMSTEC was established in the year 1997. It includes five countries of South Asia – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and two countries of South-East Asia – Myanmar and Thailand.
Under the guidance of the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the Pusa Decomposer developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) for efficient management of paddy stubble with the aim of better and optimum utilization by the farmers was held in Pusa, Delhi today. The workshop was organized under the leadership of Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, in which hundreds of farmers were present and thousands of farmers also joined virtually through 60 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs).
The technology of decomposer has been transferred by Pusa Institute to other companies including UPL, through which it is being produced and made available to the farmers. Through these, the use and demonstration of Pusa Decomposer in the last 3 years have been done in Uttar Pradesh in 26 lakh acres, 5 lakh acres in Punjab, 3.5 lakh acres in Haryana and 10 thousand acres in Delhi, which have yielded very good results. This decomposer is cheap and easily available across the country.
In the workshop, Union Minister Shri Tomar said that proper management of paddy stubble is the collective responsibility of all to prevent pollution. He said, concerned State Governments- Punjab, Haryana, U.P. and Delhi were provided more than Rs 3 thousand crore for stubble management by the Centre. Punjab was allocated the maximum fund of about Rs 1450 crores, while Haryana got Rs 900 crores, UP Rs 713 crores and 6 Crore rupees to Delhi. Out of this, about one thousand crore rupees are left with the states including Rs 491 crore with Punjab alone.
Shri Tomar said, a comprehensive solution to this problem is possible with optimum utilization of 2.07 lakh machines made available to the states for stubble management with the assistance provided by the Centre. Also, if the Pusa Decomposer developed by the Pusa Institute is used, the fertility of the cultivable land will also increase along with the solving the problem.
Shri Tomar said that more important than political discussion on paddy straw is to discuss its management and how to get rid of it. He said, the problem of stubble burning is serious and on this issue levelling allegations and counter allegations are not justified. Be it the Central or State governments or farmers, everyone has the same objective that agriculture should flourish in the country and there is prosperity for farmers. The Minister added that burning of stubble causes harm to the environment as well as the people and therefore a way should be found to deal with it and follow that path. With this, the soil will not only be safe, pollution will also be reduced and the farmers will be benefitted a lot, Shri Tomar added.
In the workshop, some farmers from these states, who used Pusa Decomposer, shared their positive experiences, while the licensee also shared the benefits of Pusa Decomposer with the farmers. Union Agriculture Secretary Shri Manoj Ahuja, DDG (NRM) of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Dr. S.K. Chaudhary, Director, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh also addressed the workshop. Shri Tomar and the farmers who came to Pusa, while visiting the field, saw the live performance of the Pusa decomposer and inquired about the stalls.
The Central Government is serious about stubble management and several meetings have been held with all the stakeholders in this regard. On 19th October, in the presence of Union Minister Shri Tomar, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Shri Bhupendra Yadav and Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Minister Shri Parshottam Rupala, discussions were held with the concerned state governments and necessary guidelines were issued in this regard. Earlier on September 21, a meeting was held with the states under the chairmanship of Shri Tomar. Several meetings were held at the level of Agriculture Secretary and Joint Secretary also and suitable advice and instructions had been given to the states. Today’s workshop is a part of this series, in which Shri Tomar called upon the state governments, farmers, agricultural scientists to work together for stubble management.
The National Gender Resource Centre in Agriculture (NGRCA), Directorate of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare in collaboration of National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), an autonomous organization under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) has celebrated ‘Mahila Kisan Diwas’ or ‘International Rural Women Day’ on 15th October, 2022. As the year 2023 has been declared as the ‘International Year of Millets by United Nations (UN), the theme of this year Mahila Kisan Diwas is ‘Millets: Empowering Women and Providing Nutritional Security’. This inaugural event was organized through Video Conferencing under the guidance of Union Agriculture Minister Shri. Narendra Singh Tomar and the technical session of the programme is being organized at MANAGE, Hyderabad with the technical support provided by Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR), Hyderabad.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Tomar said, the resolution initiated by Government of India and supported by 72 countries to mark year 2023 as the ‘International Year of Millets’ has been unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and declared year 2023 as the ‘International Year of Millets (IYOM)’. The Government of India has declared to celebrate IYOM, 2023 to make it peoples’ movement so that the Indian millets, recipes, value added products are accepted globally. The ‘International Year of Millets’ stands to provide a unique opportunity to increase global production, ensure efficient processing and consumption, promote a better utilization of crop rotations and encourage better connectivity throughout food systems to promote millets as a key component of the food basket. Shri Tomar stated the Government of India is committed to give priority to women for bringing them in the mainstream of agriculture development as per the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister of Atamnirbhar Bharat. He expressed that women are the primary producers of the food grains, custodians of biodiversity and millets are an important food grain from our indigenous food systems. Millet-based farming is the answer to cope with the changing time as Millet farming preserves biodiversity and empowers women farmers as cultivators to agripreneurs and self-employed women ; more confident in their abilities and are better able to address their problems. The government of India has also taken several initiatives focusing on empowerment of women keeping them in the center stage of development process. These initiatives include constitution of Self Help Groups, Farmer Producer Organizations producer companies and capacity building of women through training in various institutions like Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Kailash Choudhary in his address expressed his views on the important contribution of women farmers in agriculture and allied sectors and Indian economy and highlighted the importance of women in self-reliant India. The Minister said, the role of women in agriculture in India is hugeand the government is giving priority to women in every field under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister. Due to the initiative of Hon’ble Prime Minister, United Nations has declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. Today, agricultural women farmers and entrepreneurs are making important contribution in various aspects of production, value addition, processing and nutritional security of millets and coarse cereals.
Shri Tomar released a book on depicting “Evidences based Gender Inequality in Agriculture and Food Systems in India” which will be helpful for the policy makers, academicians and researchers to focus on areas where the gender analysis is needed. The Senior and middle level extension functionaries, women farmers and agri-entrepreneurs and resource persons from various States/Institutes/Start-ups training institutes participated in the event and an exhibition was also showcased at MANAGE, Hyderabad by women Start-ups. The successful women entrepreneurs from various States also said their views and experiences on the occasion during the event.
Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare today relaxed the existing limit of 25 quintals for purchase of Moong and Urad under Price Support Scheme (PSS) during the summer season 2021-22 for farmers in Madhya Pradesh. It has been now increased to 40 quintals per farmer per day.
On the instructions of Union Agriculture Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, exemption limit has been approved for Madhya Pradesh farmers.
Earlier, Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shri Kamal Patel met the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar and discussed about the problems faced by the farmers of Madhya Pradesh. Shri Patel said that while selling their Moong and Urad produce under PSS, if farmers have more quantity of summer moong available with them, according to PSS registration guidelines, they faced problem due to purchase limit of 25 quintal per day per farmer.
This problem has been resolved with immediate effect following directions to officials by Shri Tomar, after which the relaxation has been approved by the Government.
