MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
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(a): India is one of the prominent countries in the field of agriculture in the world. It is a major producer of paddy, wheat and pulses. It ranks 2nd in paddy & wheat production and 1st in pulses production in the world.
India has one of the world’s largest Agricultural Research System viz., National Agricultural Research System (NARS) including ICAR institutes and State Agriculture Universities (SAUs). The NARS has contributed immensely to make India self-sufficient in food production and serves the agricultural technology and information needs of the country.
(b) to (e): By recognizing the importance of irrigation, credit supply, availability of high quality seeds and remunerative prices, the Government has already started various schemes such as Per Drop More Crop under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PDMC-PMKSY) to increase water efficiency, Sub-mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP) initiated for making quality seeds available and Minimum Support Price (MSP) of atleast 50% return over the cost of production.
To safeguard farmers from exploitation by the money lenders, a saturation drive was initiated for providing them Kisan Credit Card (KCC) for having access to Interest Subvention Scheme for concessional loans under institutional credit ambit.
(f) & (g): The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under the Ministry of Home Affairs compiles and disseminates information on suicides in its publication titled ‘Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India’ (ADSI). NCRB has published reports upto 2020 which are available on its website.
Agriculture being a State Subject, the State Governments take appropriate measures for development of agriculture in the State. However, Government of India supplements the efforts of States through appropriate policy measures and budgetary support and various schemes/ programmes.
The Government has adopted several developmental programmes, schemes, reforms and policies that focus on higher incomes for the farmers. All these policies & programmes are being supported by higher budgetary allocations, non-budgetary financial resources such as creating Corpus Funds like Micro Irrigation Fund etc. There have been several reforms to unleash the potential, e.g. Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs along with necessary financial support under Atma Nirbhar Package (Agriculture). Under Atma Nirbhar Bharat special attention is being paid for creation of infrastructure for which “Agri Infrastructure Fund (AIF) has been created with a size of Rs. 100,000 crore. Other special initiatives include Supplementary Income transfers under PM-KISAN; Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY); Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY); Increase in Minimum Support Price (MSPs) for all Kharif & Rabi Crops ensuring a minimum of 50 percent of profit margin on the cost of production, Bee-Keeping; RashtriyaGokul Mission; Blue Revolution; Interest Subvention Scheme; Kisan Credit Card (KCC) that now offers production loan to even dairy & fishery farmers besides agricultural crops etc. For environmental sustainability, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) has been launched in the year 2014-15 which aims to evolve and implement strategies to make Indian agriculture more resilient to the changing climate. The adoption of Drone technologies in agriculture has a potential to revolutionize the Indian agriculture. In order to make Drone technology affordable to the farmers and other stakeholders of this sector, financial assistance @ 100 % cost of drone together with the contingent expenditure is extended to ICAR/SAU/ State governments/ State government Institutions under Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) for its demonstration on the farmer’s fields.
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