Hyderabad, Sep 18 (PTI) Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said the Centre would extend full cooperation to the states to improve farmers’ welfare and increase their income.
Speaking at the inaugural session of conference of Agriculture Ministers of southern states here, he stressed the need for greater efforts to ensure that every farmer has access to a Kisan Credit Card (KCC).
He said KCC can initially be issued to farmers who are beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, enabling them to access loans at affordable interests rates.
“The government of India will cooperate with the states with full strength. Land is with the state. Farmers are in state. Nation first. Centre and states should work together,” he said.
The regional conference was important for strenghtening coperation between the Centre and states, he said.
Emphasising the need to prepare a agriculture roadmap for individual states, Chouhan said the the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) and other agricultural institutes are ready to support them.
“We would like to work with you to prepare a roadmap on how agriculture should be as per agro-climatic conditions, so that farmers can have more income,” he said.
Noting that the impact of El Nino weather pattern is more on the southern states, he said contingency plans have been prepared on the basis of districts.
The El Nino impact was different various districts within a state, he said.
The Centre would emphasise the cultivation of less water intensive crops and support the states in availability of seeds, he said.
Chouhan said the central government’s objectives in agriculture are ensuring food security for the country’s population, increasing farmers’ income and nutrition security.
The roadmap to achieve the targets include increasing production and productivity, reducing cost of cultivation, ensuring remunerative price for farmers’ produce, crop insurance, diversity in agriculture and work on soil health, he said.
The union minister urged the states to determine the quantity of seeds in advance to ensure timely distribution to farmers and stressed the need for measures to protect farmers against poor quality seeds and pesticides.
Chouhan said new legislation governing seeds and pesticide need to be enacted, but urged states to effectively implement existing laws until new legislation was introduced.
While the Centre assures procurement of arhar (pigeon pea), masoor (lentil) and urad (black gram), others are purchased under the PM-AASHA (Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM AASHA), he said.
Chouhan also said a new scheme would be implemented for coconut promotion. PTI SJR SJR ROH
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.