By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, NOV 21, 2024: THE Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare (DA&FW) held a regional conference on 18th & 19th November at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh to conduct a midterm review of various agricultural schemes implemented by Southern States & UT. Secretary, Dr. Devesh Chaturvedi and key officers from DA&FW, States of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka & Union Territory of Puducherry gathered in Visakhapatnam to evaluate the progress and address challenges in the effective implementation of these schemes. These Conferences, the second in the series by the Government of India reflects the government's commitment to enhancing agricultural infrastructure, fostering growth and supporting farmers across all regions, ensuring that each state's unique challenges and opportunities are addressed through collaborative, targeted efforts and aims for equitable and sustainable agricultural development across the country.

During the course of the meeting, Dr. Devesh Chaturvedi highlighted the key initiatives taken by the Ministry in the recent years and urged the states to take maximum benefit of each scheme and various initiatives for the betterment of the farming and allied Community across their respective states. The states were urged to expedite the execution of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) by ensuring timely fund allocation and addressing issues related to State contributions and Single Nodal Account (SNA) balances. The participants were informed about the huge increase in Agricultural budget along with various farmer friendly initiatives taken by the Govt. and various bottlenecks, good practices etc. were discussed amongst the participant states and the department so as to utilize all initiatives maximally. The Secretary emphasized the importance of operationalizing SNA-SPARSH, returning unutilized balances and interest, and promptly submitting Utilization Certificates (UCs). He also emphasized on the importance of organizing state-level conferences to address region-specific agricultural challenges, ensuring every state receives focused attention and support for their unique needs and assured that the Centre is very much a partner to them and will  help them to ameliorate the conditions of farmers and expanding  farming related activities in their respected states.

The review meeting started by familiarizing the participants about the new initiative of the Govt.  i.e Dharti Aaba Janajatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DA - JGUA) approved by the Union Cabinet and launched by the Hon'ble Prime Minister in Sept, 2024. All participants were urged to get onboarded in the scheme to strengthen the recognition process, empower tribal communities, and ensure their involvement in forest protection, conservation, and sustainable livelihoods through government support. States were also informed about the flexibility to reallocate funds within RKVY components and for formulating new projects under KY for FRA beneficiaries under DA-JGUA so as to benefit the poorest of the poor in the country.

The conference focused on improving implementation of major schemes, including Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (PM-RKVY) and Krishonnati Yojana (KY), where non-performing states were encouraged to enhance their efforts in the remaining months of the fiscal year. The states were also advised to finalize the annual action plan for FY 2025-26 by December to enable timely release of the first instalment by April, 2025, aiming to reduce previous delays in fund utilization. The states were requested to spend the funds available with them as more spending will result in more allocation by the centre. The flexibility to spend money across schemes under the respective umbrella scheme was also explained to them in details.

A comprehensive review of other key initiatives took place, covering the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) for risk mitigation and expanded crop insurance, and the Digital Agriculture Mission for advancing data-driven agriculture. The conference highlighted the need for digital integration in crop surveys and the alignment of state land records with the Agristack to streamline operations under PM KISAN. Secretary (Agriculture) asked the states to aggressively work towards farmers registry as it is one time task but will reap insurmountable benefits to them for taking advantage of both Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored Schemes. 

The meeting also discussed high-priority topics, including the National Edible Oils Mission, NABL accreditation for laboratories under the Insecticides Act, efficient use of the Krishi Nivesh Portal, Carbon Credits, Namo Drone Didi, e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), Farmer Producer Organization (FPO), Soil Health Card and Agricultural Infrastructure Fund (AIF) etc to foster sector growth. A presentation on the initiatives of the State Government on promoting Natural Farming was made by Vijay Kumar, Advisor to Government of Andhra Pradesh.

An Open House session which discussed myriad issues in addition to above like tenure farmers, improved sampling systems, intercropping, layering of seeds, micro irrigations, organic farming, seeds quality etc. concluded the conference, allowing stakeholders to provide insights on overcoming implementation barriers and maximizing the reach of agricultural programs.

On 19th November, 2024 the delegates visited the Natural Farming fields and interacted with the practitioners of 2 to 8 years of field experience and saw preparation of different jeevamruthams and Agri Drone Spraying Technology.