हिंदी
Chandigarh, August 18– Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister, Mr. J.P. Dalal said that the Government’s main concern is to ensure development of Atmanirbhar Agriculture and Atmanirbhar Farmers.
It is noteworthy that in the history of 74 years of independent India, no Government has taken as many important decisions in the favour of farmers as have been taken during the last 6 years by the Central Government and the State Government.
In a statement issued here today, Mr. Dalal said that in order to provide modern infrastructure to the farmers, recently the Central Government has allocated Rs 1 lakh crore for agricultural infrastructure out of which Rs. 3,900 crore have been earmarked for Haryana. The officers of the department have been instructed to formulate plans so that these funds can be utilised at the earliest.
He said that the government wants the farmers to sell their produce as a merchant and is outlining plans for it, whether they sell through FPO or sell it as their own brand. He asserted that in order to double the income of farmers, the Government has emphasised on numerous alternative strategies. To ensure that farmer also becomes an energy producer, the Government has taken an initiative to promote solar pumps so that farmers can give additional power to the grid.
Mr. Dalal said that during its last tenure, the Central Government had combined Farmers’ Welfare with Agriculture and created the new name of the Ministry as Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare which was implemented in Haryana as well. Apart from this, Haryana Agricultural Farmers and Agricultural Costs and Prices Commission was also constituted to advise the farmers of the state. Elaborating on it further, he said that now the Central Government has also added Cooperation with Agriculture and named it as Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare.
He said that farmers and cooperatives are interdependent and several cooperative movements have been a source of revolutionary changes in the country. He said that 2,000 retail outlets will soon be opened in villages and cities of Haryana through Cooperation Department, in which youth of village and town will work according to their capabilities and skills. These retail outlets will act as mini-supermarket. Apart from this, the Department of Public Health Engineering is also launching Mineral Water by the name of Haryana Fresh.
Mr. Dalal said that in order to provide better finance management to the farmers according to the utility and income of the land, Chief Minister Mr. Manohar Lal has already announced to appoint 17,000 Kisan Mitras, who will advise the farmers as volunteers. These steps are being taken to achieve the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi’s vision of doubling farmers’ income by the year 2022.
He said that it is the time to change the agricultural scenario as per the global standards for which the Central Government has introduced new ordinances as per the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act.
