By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, NOV 03, 2017: THE Union Agri Minister, Mr Radha Mohan Singh, yesterday said that the Prime Minister has set a target to double the farmers’ income by 2022. The Ministry is working towards achieving the goal. And to achieve this target, the Prime Minister has advocated a seven-point strategy:

i. Special focus on irrigation with sufficient budget, with the aim of “Per Drop More Crop”.

ii. Provision of quality seeds and nutrients based on soil health of each field.

iii. Large investments in Warehousing and Cold Chains to prevent post-harvest crop losses.

iv. Promotion of value addition through food processing.

v. Creation of a National Farm Market, removing distortions and e-platform across 585 Stations.

vi. Introduction of a New Crop Insurance Scheme to mitigate risks at an affordable cost.

vii. Promotion of ancillary activities like poultry, beekeeping, and fisheries.

Mr Radha Mohan Singh stated above mentioned seven-point strategy while chairing the Inter-Session meeting of the Consultative Committee meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare said that the Government has launched a number of schemes and programs to Double Farmers’ Income. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, Soil Health Card, Neem-Coated Urea and e-NAM Schemes are few of our flagship programs that aim to improve the productivity and earnings of our farmers.

Mr Singh said that the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation, and Farmers Welfare has also constituted a Committee under the Chairmanship of CEO, NRAA with members from all related departments and NITI Aayog to examine issues relating to doubling of farmers’ income by the year 2022. As of now, six meetings of the Committee have been held.

Agriculture Minister said that RKVY guidelines are being changed to include entrepreneur development. DAC&FW has prepared a roadmap for production of pulses to the tune of 24 million tonnes by 2017-18. A dedicated micro-irrigation fund with an initial corpus of Rs.5000 crore has been set up by NABARD to achieve “Per Dop More Crop”.