The Setting Up of KVKs in Mungeli and Bemtara under 12th Plan

The regular organization of agriculture fairs in large numbers across the country has invigorated farmers with new energy and to reach the farmers directly, agriculture fairs play important role, said Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

At the inauguration of Krishi Samridhi-Rashtriya Krishi Mela, Chhattisgarh, 2017 in Raipur, Shri Singh also announced, under 12th Plan, the setting up of KVKs in Mungeli and Bemtara of Chhattisgarh. Keeping this in view, under 12th Plan in Chhattisgarh, 7 new Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) have been proposed.

For the betterment of agriculture sector and prosperity of the farmers, Government of India is committed, said Shri Radha Mohan Singh. In the budget of agriculture research in the year 2016-17, an unprecedented increase of almost Rs. 500 crore was included. With an increase of Rs. 90 crore as compared to the previous year, likewise agriculture extension was reinforced with a sum of Rs. 750 crore.

Shri Singh opined that keeping in view meager potentialities of extension of cultivable area, it is imperative to increase the productivity in view of rising population of the country.

Through active use of available resources which include high yielding, seed varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, as well as agriculture machines, the productivity can be enhanced. Institutes of ICAR are unabatedly researching on the effects of climate change. They are also doing research on varieties that yield higher production and on ways of saving water. To develop agriculture sector by improved techniques they are giving their best contribution.

In research and education institutes, new programmes have been initiated for the last two years. For technological development and its utilization ‘Mera Gaon-Mera Gaurav’ and ‘Farmers First’ programmes have initiated in order to increase liaison between farmers and scientists.

Shri Singh informed that, initiatives such as Student Ready, Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture (ARYA), Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Krishi Unnati Shiksha Yojana, Consortia Research Platform, External Finance Assistance, National Agriculture Science Fund, National Agriculture Project and Agricultural Education in the schools have been taken up.

For the betterment of the farmers, Government of India has taken a number of initiatives amongst them being Soil Health Card Scheme is worth mentioning for bringing about improvement in natural resource utilization skill.

In a period of two years, under this scheme, 14 crore Soil Health Cards are to be given away to all the farmers. So far, under this scheme, more than 4 crore Soil Health Cards have been distributed amongst the farmers.

To enhance the water use efficiency and to provide water for irrigation in the country to achieve the target of “More Crop – Per Drop”, the infrastructure under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana has been chalked out. To cope with the effects of natural calamities, National Agriculture Market has also been established.

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