G-20 Agriculture Ministers’ meeting at Berlin

The G-20 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting at Berlin, Germany was addressed by Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh. India will continue to extend their support in early implementation of past commitments made at the G20 Agriculture Ministers Meetings particularly on Research and Development, collaboration and knowledge transfer, action to combat food loss and waste, and information and communication technologies (ICT), said the Minister in his addressed.

Shri Singh also underscores the importance of assessment of stocks and suggests sharing of best practices in this regard and supports the proposal of strengthening of AMIS. To disseminate information on agronomic practices, prices, fertilizer and pesticide use and weather and pest related advisories, in India, ICT has proved to be an effective and powerful medium, said the Minister.

In order to develop an integrated approach for communication process in the agricultural sector, many new initiatives have been taken. These initiatives include launch of agricultural mobile apps, web portals and a dedicated broadcasting channel.

To reform the agriculture marketing system in the country, a National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) portal has been launched which provides a pan-India electronic trading. This e-marketing platform help farmers in facilitating better price discovery through efficient, transparent and competitive marketing platform; reducing wastages; better marketing of agricultural produce; and getting market related information and with access to large number of buyers from within and outside the State through transparent auction processes.

Shri Singh said that a major irrigation programme was launched by the government in 2015 with emphasis on improving water- use efficiency through, water conservation/ rainwater harvesting and use of micro-irrigation, in order to promote efficient irrigation practices in the country.

The programme is being implemented in a mission mode with aim of completing 99 major and medium irrigation projects with the capacity of 76.03 lakh hectare in a phased manner by December, 2019. The role of G20 economies in achieving the sustainable global food security assumes significant importance, said Shri Singh.

The emerging challenges of increasing climate complexities, stress on natural resources, degrading soil heath and fragmentation of land holdings pose serious risks in sustaining this growth momentum and also on other side the world economy has made strides in increasing the global food production, said Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister.

Source: http://www.pib.nic.in/