Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday proposed, “three pillars” to the farming community for capacity development and sustainable growth. These three pillars according to PM Modi are traditional farming, optimum utilization of land, and animal husbandry. “Apart from sowing your traditional crop, utilize your fencing areas to plant trees like timber for some extra income. Timber is used for making furniture. All farmers should also alternatively be involved in animal husbandry which can help them in bad crop season,” PM Modi said while inaugurating Krishi Unnati Mela in Delhi.
“You (Farmers) can start rearing cattle for milk, cultivating bees for honey, poultry for eggs,” he said.
The PM also asked farmers to focus on food processing industry as this industry could generate more income for them. He said, “If you (Farmers) start processing your produce you generate extra money. For example, you get more money when you go to sell mahwa or ghee than when you sell milk.”
The PM also launched a mobile application through which farmers can check weather updates. The application would also provide an E-market platform for farmers. The E-market will help farmers locate local mandis, compare prices with different mandis in his vicinity amongst many others. He also spoke on the importance of drip irrigation and said that more farmers should adopt this method. He also gave the slogan logan “per drop, more crops”.
The PM also talked about how his government had stopped black marketing of urea. He said, “We stopped black marketing of urea. We did it through ‘neem coating of the urea’. Earlier urea meant for farmers were diverted to industries, but by making ‘neem coating of urea’ we have been able to stop it. Now we have surplus of urea.”
The mela, which is being held at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa for three days, will have farmers and scientists visiting from across the country to exchange modern and scientific methods of farming. Farmers will also have access to experts for queries related to crops and soils. Organic and High Yield Varied crop seeds will be made available to farmers. Apart from this, exhibitions and cultural programmes are also planned by the Agriculture Ministry.