Srinagar, Mar 5: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the government will lay emphasis on setting up more Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in the country as part of its efforts to increase the income of small and marginal farmers. He said that the government had launched Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-Kisan scheme), under which Rs 1.82 lakh crore has been directly transferred to the bank accounts of about 11 crore farmers.
PM Kisan Latest Update
Government is all set to release the next installment of PM Kisan Yojana hence before that farmers must do all the necessary work like updating eKYC, aadhaar details etc. Sources said that Modi govt. may release the next installment in the first week of April.
CII-NCDEX FPO Summit
Addressing the CII-NCDEX FPO Summit, he said that the government has already started planning to set up 10,000 FPOs with an outlay of Rs 6,865 crore and the program is being implemented at a fast pace.
86 percent farmers are small and marginal
Tomar said that the plan of setting up of FPOs is very effective which will ensure the progress of small and marginal farmers. About 86 percent of the farmers are small and marginal, with an average holding of less than 1.1 hectares. Tomar said that the government is making efforts to make Indian agriculture profitable for the growth of the farmers.
He said that in order to increase the income of the farmers, the government is trying to make available easy financing, market linkages and eliminate middlemen in agricultural marketing. The Minister said that the Government is promoting use of technology, crop diversification in the agriculture sector and encouraging farmers to grow high-value crops of global quality standards.
