PUNE, Dec 23 : The Centre and state governments are working on a new scheme to help farmers transport the farm produce to other states and markets, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Monday.
Speaking on the occasion of the platinum jubilee of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (AERC), Singh said: “…the central government is working on a new scheme to deliver the farmers’ products to distant places,” according to an official statement.
The contribution of the farm sector to the country’s GDP is 18 per cent, and the government is working on many areas to further strengthen the sector, the minister said.
He stressed the judicious use of natural resources and called for stopping the indiscriminate use of pesticides.
“The need of the hour is to move towards natural farming, and we have to take this forward with full potential,” he said.
The launch of the river-linking project on December 25 will benefit the farmers, he said and called for the development of a technology to irrigate more with less water.
The minister stated that there is a need to take lab work to fields and urged the researchers not to be confined to the lab.
A television programme, ‘Modern Krishi Choupal’ on the DD Kisan channel, has been launched to bridge the gap. This is a platform where farmers, researchers and scientists sit together and exchange their views on the problems and new opportunities in the agriculture sector, Chouhan said.
He emphasised that information related to the agriculture sector should not be limited to English language only and should be published in different languages so that the distance between labs to land can be bridged. (PTI)
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