New laws will increase farmers' profits: ICAR

Bengaluru: Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Deputy Director-General A. K. Singh on Monday said the new agriculture laws will help farmers to increase their income in a big way.

Singh's statement comes amidst several farmers protesting on Delhi's borders since November seeking repeal of three new farm laws.

Addressing the annual Five-day National Horticulture Fair 2021 organised by the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru virtually, Singh said that by eliminating middlemen, farmers will receive a larger share of profit for their produce.

"These laws have great potential for horticulture crop diversification and farmers are going to realise a better price in the future," he contended

Singh claimed that the union government's proactive policies and with farmers' efforts the horticultural production is likely to surpass foodgrain production in the next five years.

He said that technologies developed by ICAR have significantly contributed to increasing agriculture production. He added that schemes like Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture (ARYA) scheme and the student Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana (READY) scheme have proved to be very effective in attracting rural educated youth to agriculture.

Apart from this, the union government's setting up the agri-business incubation centres have also encouraged new agro start-ups to come up across the country, Singh said.

In an effort to increase employment opportunities in the agriculture sector, the union government had launched Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) at Krishi Vigyan Kendras to help farmers to become entrepreneurs, he explained.

"We (ICAR) are providing all the technical support to such programmes," he said and added that these steps have not only increased employment opportunities to the youth but also enhanced income for farmers too," he said.