Govt will double farmers’ income with limited resources and help of technology: Radha Mohan Singh

NewsBharati    28-Sep-2017
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New Delhi, September 28: Union Agriculture Minister, Radha Mohan Singh said the objective of the agriculture development is to double the Farmers’ Income by 2022. With limited resources and fixed area of land availability, it cannot be achieved without the support of technology, which should be low cost, farmer friendly and scalable.

While addressing the representatives at the Start-up Companies’ CEO meet in Krishi Bhawan, Singh said agriculture plays an important role in the lives of our people and economy of the country where more than 50 percent of people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. For the development of the nation, development of agriculture and the farmers are important. 

Radha Mohan Singh said the Ministry is running various flagship programs such as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), Soil Health Card (SHC), Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana PMKSY), Paramparaagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), etc.

“The schemes are providing support to farmers. SHC, for instance, will help in improving the soil health and reducing the cost of fertilizers. However, for this, a large number of soil samples have to be analyzed, which is arduous and time consuming. Therefore, we need a technological solution in the form of low-cost hand-held soil sensors or any non-destructible method of soil fertility assessment that can easily assess soil health using the technology,” he added.

“Therefore, we need a technological solution in the form of low-cost hand-held soil sensors or any non-destructible method of soil fertility assessment that can easily assess soil health using the technology.”

Singh said for this, technological development is compulsory. Singh said technologies desirable for different farmer friendly programs include Sensor Technology, Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, App Development, Development of GIS-based portals, low-cost field instruments for various agricultural assessments, etc.

Union Agriculture Minister said the Ministry would promote these technologies and their development, which can be used for farmers’ welfare. He directed his offices to work with a smaller core-teams to continue to work with the start-ups.