Govt urged to introduce agri-infra fund scheme
It is imperative to adopt technology and create infrastructure to build a resilient agriculture sector in India, says Samuel Praveen Kumar, Joint Secretary (Extension), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
Addressing the knowledge sharing session ‘Harnessing Agriculture’s Potential- 2035’, organized by FICCI on 19 Sept 2023, Kumar noted the government’s earlier production centric approach in the agriculture sector, but he stressed, “now we focus on the entire value chain”.
Every country across the world is embracing newer technology, following innovative ways to build a strong agriculture value chain.
“By adopting these measures along with the collective efforts of all stakeholders, we can make Indian agriculture sector more robust, resilient, climate smart to match the global standards,” he said.
To promote infrastructure in the agriculture sector, Kumar suggested that the government introduced agriculture infrastructure fund scheme. “Till date, close to Rs.30,000 crore has been disbursed for these projects and this in turn has brought in investments around Rs.50,500 crore.
“This is going to change the landscape of the agriculture sector in the country as it is through infrastructure only that we can address the other inefficiencies in the supply chain.”
Speaking on the issue of institutional credit for farmers, he said that it is one of the focus areas of the government. “A robust value chain would ensure that the loss suffered by a farmer should be minimal and evitable including farm or operational loss,” said Kumar.
He pointed out that technology penetration in agriculture sector is least as compared to other sectors like education, health, etc., and there is scope to further enhance technology adoption through AI, ML, deep learning.
“The Ministry is using these technology tools to develop a few applications including capturing innovations at the farm level, digital crop survey along with creating the agri-stack,” emphasized Kumar.
Sanjiv Kanwar, Managing Director, YARA South Asia, said, “The agri-channels which have been in this space for over 50 years are the original start-ups of Indian agriculture – they believed in the future of Indian agriculture and committed themselves to making India self-sufficient by serving farmers with right agri inputs and technology support.
“Channel partners must be recognized for providing the last-mile connectivity from lab to land. Through this knowledge sharing session, I congratulate all the channel partners for their commitment and consistency in serving the rural India for over the past 5 decades.
“Their contribution to the nation’s agricultural growth has been highly appreciable. They have conducted business with a strong sense of purpose serving farmers through the thick and thin over several years to become successful and profit making.”
Siraj Hussain, Advisor, FICCI and Former Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Ministry of Food Processing Industries, added, “FICCI is thrilled to have partnered with Yara India for this knowledge-sharing event, ‘Harnessing Agriculture’s Potential – 2035’.
“This partnership opens doors to explore needs of input dealers and channel partners. They play an important role in communicating to farmers the advancements in use of inputs. They enable robust relationship between Indian farmers and emerging scientific technologies.” Fiinews.com
