Small farmers to benefit from Infra Fund, FPOs: Minister Narendra Singh Tomar

Ongole: The small farmers can benefit from the vast network of Krishi Vigyan Kendras at district level with the creation of 10000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and under the Rs 1 lakh crore Agricultural Infrastructure Fund launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Narendra Singh Tomar. He laid the foundation stone of the administrative buildings of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) at Kandukur through videoconferencing mode on Tuesday.

Speaking on the occasion, Tomar said that despite the hard work of farmers, scientists and agriculture departments for enhancing farm production and income, farmers suffer losses due to natural disasters and sometimes lose their entire investment as well. The minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has created the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme to compensate for this loss of the farmers. He said that the government has paid more than Rs 13000 crore as premium on behalf of farmers and they received Rs 58000 crores towards the settlement of crop insurance claims. He advised that more farmers should take advantage and avail the provisions under this insurance scheme.

Regarding the creation of ten thousand new FPOs in the country, Tomar said that farmers should be organized and it is essential that they should get the full benefit of agricultural technology. He observed that more than 80 percent are small farmers in the country and they themselves are not able to invest in agriculture. In such a situation, Tomar opined that the formation of FPOs will increase their capacity, the new investment will reach them and will usher in prosperity for the farm families.

Participating in the program, Union minister of state for agriculture Kailash Chaudhary expressed confidence that the additional KVKs will make an important contribution in transferring modern knowledge of agriculture to the farmers. Farmers are increasingly taking crop advisories from the KVKs.

Nellore MP Adala Prabhakar Reddy thanked the Union Minister Tomar for laying the foundation stone of KVK Bhavan at Kandukur and said that the establishment of this center will enable local farmers to move towards improved agriculture in this rainfed district.

Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, along with Dr AK Singh, DDG (AE), ICAR, Dr YG Prasad, Director, ATARI, Dr Damodar Reddy, Director, CTRI, Dr Anuradha, Head, KVK, Scientific Officers and officials of the Ministry of Agriculture were also present in the programme.