Staff Reporter
Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has said that Farmers and Industry are complementary to each other, – industries cannot function without farmers and without the Industry, Farming cannot be remunerative.
The Minister emphasised that the growth of Agriculture sector and profitability of farmers have always been a key priority for the Government, and focus today is on pushing a digital agriculture mission to deliver new, robust technologies to the farmers to uplift them from the old, traditional, marginally less-profit-driven agricultural practices to more result oriented practices. The budget allocation for the sector has been increased by more than 5 times compared to 2014-15.
Minister was speaking at the CII Partnership Summit 2023 at New Delhi recently. The Summit is organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
He further mentioned that to make the sector economically more viable and lucrative for the younger generation, technology and research will play an important role. He added that the allied sector is another important area to create employment opportunities and called for investment from the Industry.
Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Mr Narendra Singh Tomar has said that Farmers and Industry are complementary to each other, – industries cannot function without farmers and without the Industry, Farming cannot be remunerative.
The role of the government is important towards both the Farmers and the Industry. It is the effort of the government that there should be maximum growth of industries, but at the same time, our 86 percent Small Farmers should be empowered because no matter how much progress we make, but unless these small farmers turn prosperous, the country will not develop. Industry should bear in mind which programmes will fetch farmers a good price and which path we should follow so that prosperity comes to the homes of the farmers, only then will such exchange of ideas be successful. Mr Tomar said this today in a special session organized during the 28th edition of the Partnership Summit-2023 of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Mr Tomar said that the government is fulfilling all the requirements to promote the Agriculture sector, increase production & productivity and ease the export of agricultural products and will continue to work in this direction in the future. Mr Tomar said that the industries have their own strong teams, which work till the bottom of the pyramid and they also have the right feedback systems. In this context, the Ministry officials should keep in touch with the stakeholders so that information exchange takes place in the interest of the farmers. By continuing to work on these principles, farmers and agriculture sector will benefit more. In this series, a dialogue programme of Industry with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was organized recently, so that practically the entire agriculture sector including the farmers can get the benefits. Mr Tomar said that agriculture is a priority sector for all of us, which needs the support of technology, research and industries to bring benefits and make farmers prosperous and to further strengthen the agricultural economy, so that when all these are combined, only then progress will accelerate.
Mr Tomar said that there was a period when one-sided thinking was used, but now Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi has an integrated vision for the overall and balanced development of the country, which CII is also trying to take forward with great enthusiasm. Prime Minister Mr Modi constantly tries to rise beyond the departments because whatever programmes the government has, it is for India, for the people of the country, how those works can move forward, he himself thinks about many programmes.