Harness scientific innovations like artificial intelligence to improve yield, aggressively sell domestic natural and organic products and processed food, and promote Indian millets in the global arena, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged farmers.
Continuing with his webinar on provisions in the budget, Modi on Thursday asked farmers and those involved in agriculture sector to leverage increasing awareness for environment friendly lifestyle and resulting market for natural and organic products. He exhorted the Kisan Vikas Kendras to create awareness for natural farming by adopting a village each for promotion of natural farming.
Modi underlined that artificial intelligence would soon change the trend related to agriculture and farming. Increasing use of drones in farming is part of the change. “Drone technology will be available on a scale only when we promote agri-startups. In the last 3-4 years, more than 700 agri startups have been created in the country,” he said.
The government has been trying to increase the scope of processed food and ensuring international standards of quality, Modi said. “In this regard, along with the Kisan Sampada Yojana, the performance-linked incentive scheme is important. The value chain also plays a big role. Therefore, a special agriculture infrastructure fund of ‘1 lakh crore has been created,” Modi said.
Next year has been declared International Year of Millets, Modi said and called upon the corporate world to brand and promote Indian millets. He asked major Indian missions to organise seminars and other promotional activities to popularise the quality and benefits of Indian millets.
Modi said the budget had seven proposals to modernise the agriculture sector. He listed natural farming on mission mode within 5 km on both banks of the Ganges, providing technology to farmers, Mission Oil Palm to reduce edible oil import and PM Gati-Shakti for transportation of agricultural products as the measures. Better organisation of agri-waste management and increasing farmer income through waste to energy solutions, regular banking through over 1.5 lakh post offices and change in agriculture research and education syllabus to meet demands of modern times for skill development and human resource development were the other measures in the budget, he said.
For management of agri-residue, “some new measures have been taken in this budget, due to which carbon emission will be reduced and farmers will also get income,” he said. He suggested that ways to use agri-waste for packaging should be found. He touched on the potential of ethanol blending in fuels. Blending was 8%, compared to 1-2% in 2014, he said. India’s cooperative sector is very vibrant, and farmers should aim at turning cooperatives into successful business enterprises, he said.
Source: newsbytii.co.in
