Hello dear aspirants!
The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar launched the National Food and Nutrition Campaign for the farmers. The campaign has been launched with the vision of modernizing agriculture and introducing farmers to new technologies. In the event, the Union Minister appreciated the progress made till now but also stressed on preparing for the challenges lying ahead.
An important announcement was made by the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Kailash Choudhary that the year 2023 will be celebrated as the International Year of Millets under the leadership of India.
About the Campaign:
The campaign is organized by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
The Union Minister said that ICAR has been working on best suited crops and seeds for rainfed and other areas. He also highlighted the efforts being made to connect farmers with the new technologies.
The campaign aims to focus on managing the abundance of production along with improving expertise. Foodgrain storage is a major area of concern in India as storage is the major cause of post-harvest losses for all kinds of food in India. The reason is lack of infrastructural capacity and use of traditional outdated methods of storage. India suffers the ‘paradox of plenty’ where there is enough to feed but a lot gets wasted before reaching the public.
The Union Minister asked for the cooperation of farmers to ensure better quality and global standard products. The campaign has been launched with the vision of attracting farmers towards costly crops and attracting educated youth towards agriculture who can help make Indian agriculture also go environment-friendly.
Appreciating India’s achievements in the field of food grains and calling it a ‘matter of pride’, the Union Minister said India can be the number one producer of almost all commodities if the farmers and scientists work together.
Through the campaign, the aim is to bring farmers closer to Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), Agricultural Universities and agricultural extension programs run by the government so that they get to learn about new seeds and techniques.
It also aims to extend farmer’s participation in various schemes including Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO), Agri Infra Fund, etc, to increase the area of organic farming under traditional farming. The campaign also seeks the contribution of farmers associated with KVKs to motivate other farmers for improved farming.
- Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) : Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) is an agricultural extension centre created by Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and its affiliated institutions at the district level. It provides various types of farm support to the agricultural sector by conducting on-farm testing to demonstrate location-specific agricultural technologies.
- Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) : FPO is an organization, where the member farmers are provided end-to-end support and services like technical services, marketing, processing, and other aspects of cultivation inputs. The idea behind the Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) is to organize farmers into groups and register themselves under the Indian Companies Act.
It has been created to enhance the farmers’ competitiveness in the emerging market opportunities and to ensure them a better income through an organization of their own. The major operations of Farmers Producer Organization (FPO) include the supply of seed, machinery, market linkages & fertilizer, training, networking, financial and technical advice.
- Agri Infra Fund : It stands for Agricultural Infrastructure Fund. It is a pan India Central Sector Scheme approved by the Central Government in 2020. It provides financial support to the farmers for post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets.
Under the scheme, banks and financial institutions provide Rs. One Lakh Crore as loans to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), Marketing Cooperative Societies, Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), Self Help Group (SHG), Farmers, Joint Liability Groups (JLG), Multipurpose Cooperative Societies, Agri-entrepreneurs, Startups, Aggregation Infrastructure Providers and Central/State agency or Local Body sponsored Public Private Partnership Project.
The campaign is set to work under the broad celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav for 75 weeks taking advantage of the festival for the progress of the country in every region and sector.
Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Kailash Choudhary highlighted that the Government has resolved to solve the problem of malnutrition and has also launched several schemes and programs in this direction.
Here are some of the Malnutrition Eradication Programmes:
- Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme
- National Health Mission (NHM)
- Mid Day Meal Scheme
- Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojna (IGMSY)
- National Nutrition policy 1993
- Poshan Abhiyaan
On the occasion, the Union Minister also mentioned the comprehensive budget of the government since 2014. He said that the budget of agriculture of the Government of India was about 21 thousand crore rupees earlier, which has now been increased to more than Rs 1.23 lakh crore. For the development of Gram Panchayats, the amount of the Finance Commission’s grant has also been increased almost five times. He highlighted the growth of the agricultural institution despite the pandemic.
Along with the officials, thousands of farmers present in all KVKs across the country were virtually connected to the program. Union Minister Shri Tomar also released a booklet based on the compilation of programs and activities of the festival.
Some of the Other Schemes in the Agricultural Sector:
- E-NAM
- National Mission For Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)
- Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY)
- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)
- Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
- Gramin Bhandaran Yojna
- Livestock insurance Scheme
- National Scheme on Welfare of Fishermen
- Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF)
Here we come to the end of this article. We hope you found it helpful.
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