UnionAgriculture and Farmers Welfare, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and FoodProcessing Industries Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar, on Tuesday said that thefarmers have started benefiting from the reforms introduced in the agriculturesector through the new laws brought by the Central government.
Hewas speaking as the Chief Guest at the Agri-Food Processing summit organised bythe Agrovision Foundation through virtual medium.
Presidingover the programme, Road Transport and Highways as well as Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises Minister Nitin Gadkari said that due to the Centralgovernment's plans, there would be a lot of employment opportunities created inthe agricultural and food processing sector in the near future.
Addressingthe inauguration ceremony of the summit, Tomar said the livelihood of almosthalf of India's population is dependent on agriculture and is directly linkedto the progress of the agro-economy, the country's development and thecountry's economy.
Agricultureis the backbone of the rural economy and the government under the leadership ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly working for the prosperity of theagricultural sector, Tomar added.
Hesaid, "The government enacted new agricultural laws and made significantamendments in the Essential Commodities Act as well and the farmers havestarted reaping its benefits."
Thereis a demand for repealing these laws by the farmers' organisations, who havebeen agitating at the borders of the national Capital since November 26.Regarding the farmers agitation, the Agriculture Minister said, "There aresome farmer organisations which are protesting and we are explaining the benefitsof these farm laws to the farmers. In the coming years, the agricultural sectorwill benefit from these reforms that will prove to be highly beneficial for thefarmers."
Tomarsaid the work of creating 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) hasalso started.
"Thisnew world of FPOs is going to be created, which will revolutionise the lives offarmers. The Union government is going to spend Rs 6,850 crore on these FPOs inthe next five years. Through the FPOs the cost of farming will be reduced,farmers will make use of technology fully and they will be attracted towardscostly crops, which will raise their standard of living and ultimately benefitthe country," Tomar added.
Hesaid the Union government has created an agriculture infrastructure fund of Rs1 lakh crore and as the basic infrastructure will be ready in the villages fromthis fund, the farmers will start benefiting from it.
TheMinister said private investment in agriculture will increase and if there arecold storage chains in village after village, then farmers would be able tosell their produce even after a delay. The Union government has implementedmany schemes and programmes to deal with the challenges of climate change, headded.
Hesaid that the Mega Food Park scheme is being given prominence and theroadblocks in its way are being removed.
Tomarsaid the Ministry of Food Processing has set a target of creating a strongmodern infrastructure network with an allocation of Rs 6,000 crore under thePradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY). Since 2014 under the PMKSY, theMinistry has approved 640 projects, of which nearly 250 have been completed.
Theseinclude 21 mega food parks, nearly 175 cold storage chains and value additioninfrastructure, nearly 50 processing units and other projects. Also more than55 agro-processing clusters have been approved.