India is in far better situation today than it was few years ago: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

New Delhi, December 8: India is in a far better situation today than it was a few years ago — be it the macroeconomic performance, or the confidence in the economy or ease of doing business. This was said by Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat after inaugurating three-days EIMA AGRIMACH INDIA 2017 in New Delhi on Thursday.

 

Speaking on this occasion, Minister Shekhawat said that as we all know, India is in a far better situation today than it was a few years ago — be it the macroeconomic performance, or the confidence in the economy or ease of doing business. “This is partly because of the buoyant rural economy, of which, agriculture is an important constituent,” he added.

Minister Shekhawat further stated that even though, we have been nearly sufficient on food production, we have to keep our selves prepared for future need. “Some estimates show that Food grain demand of country is expected to reach 355 million tonnes in 2030 as compared to 250 million tonnes in 2016. Therefore, there is a need to build a future-ready Agriculture- by plugging the existing gaps,” the Minister said.

The Minister said that Agriculture is a labour intensive activity. The labour intensive crops entail high manpower requirement, which is fast depleting and posing a big challenge to crop productivities. This has resulted in a shift from labour - intensive to mechanization intensive techniques.

The Minister also noted that the government is working on the mission of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 and farm machinery is an important constituent of it. With the country’s population growth and the amount of arable land is limited, it is important that we provide our farmers with all the tools to optimize the output on their farms.

Minister Shekhawat said that the government is, therefore, promoting farm mechanization by subsidizing the purchase of equipment through a scheme of Sub-Mission of Agricultural Mechanisation (SMAM) that promotes models of custom hiring as well.

Minister Shekhawat also informed that during the last few years Indian agricultural equipment market has been widely exposed to international trade. “I am told that India is a strong exporter of agricultural machinery with a CAGR of 6.2% over the last 4 years. The presence of 180 buyers from over 40 countries at EIMA AGRIMACH 2017 will certainly give a big push to the international trade in farm machinery,” he added.

The Minister, in the end, said that strengthened concentration on commodity-specific farm equipment is also a viable path to pursue increasing mechanization. Attempts should be to diversify the pattern of mechanization in India. “Time has come to get the farm equipment industry into a loop and enter into meaningful discussions for spreading the culture of mechanization in the rural areas,” he concluded.

Interestingly, H.E. Mr. Maurizio Martina, Minister of Agricultural, Food & Forestry Policies, Italy, H.E. Lorenzo Angeloni, Ambassador of Italy to India, S.K. Pattanayak, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare were also present on this occasion.