Naidu urges media to focus more on agriculture

Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Urban housing & Poverty Alleviation Shri M Venkaiah Naidu urged the media to focus on giving adequate coverage to agriculture related issues. He said the government started Kisan channel to provide information to farmers on the latest changes and development in the agricultural field .

Mr Venkaiah Naidu was speaking at the Rythu Nestham 12th anniversary function here on Sunday. He said the media which stresses more on breaking news , cinema and political activities should give equal importance to developments in the agricultural sector. The union minister suggested that the Center and the States should come out with a comprehensive policy on how to make agriculture a viable activity. He also said that the States should work on farmer centric initiatives to increase farm income from agriculture.

Expressing fear that agriculture will soon become extinct as the farmers are averse to undertake farming due to losses he suggested that the Government should make it viable for the farmers by providing basic infrastructure facilities. Though the Swaminathan committee had suggested some recommendations on how to make agriculture viable only a few recommendations were implemented so far, he said..

The Union Minister further said that instead of providing free power supply to farmers the governments should concentrate on providing quality and uninterrupted power supply to the agriculture sector first. He stressed on the need for providing rural infrastructure facilities like road linkage, transportation etc., so that the farmers get better market price for their products. He felt that it is imperative to introduce E-markets to facilitate farmers to buy and sell their produce and to do this the Centre has proposed to network all the market yards, he added.
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As part of measures undertaken to boost the agricultural sector, the Centre gave top priority to this sector in its budget this year. He also said that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced rural road network and electrification schemes. Likewise the Centre also took path breaking initiatives to enhance expenditure in farm and rural sectors. Listing out the initiatives, the Minister said 65,000 rural habitats would be connected by road links by 2019.

Rural electrification under Deen Dayal Upadhyaa Gram Jyoti Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sanchi Yojana for water conservation and its management and insurance cover to farmers under Pradhan Mandtri Fasal Bima Yojana are some of the other initiatives of the centre for agriculture sector. By March 2017 the Centre would distribute about 14 crore soil health cards to farmers,shri Naidu said,.

The Union Minister called upon the scientists to come out with innovative ideas to make agriculture a viable sector.

Life time achievement award was given to Shri Y. Shivaji a noted agriculture activist. Around 51 agriculturists from Telangana and A.P. were honored on this occasion. Minister for irrigation of Telangana state Shri Harish Rao also participated in the event