Firming up rural infrastructure with warehouses & cold storage: Yogi govt’s plan for empowering farmers

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh government has been committed to empowerment and upliftment of farmers and this has been evident from the day, Chief Minister Yodi Adityanath took charge of office.

Yogi govt waived off loans of up to Rs 1 lakh to small and marginal farmers, soon after becoming Chief Minister. The decision to waive off total loans worth Rs 36,000 crore was taken in the first cabinet meeting of Yogi govt in 2017, despite adverse financial circumstances. This move alone benefitted 86 lakh farmers.

Now, the Yogi government is embarking on fresh set of reforms in the agriculture sector to boost productivity, distribution of agri products and also uplifting the lives of farmers. Chief Minister has asked officials to prepare a detailed action plan for complete overhaul of rural infrastructure which calls for building rural streets, warehouses and cold storages.

Yogi govt’s handouts to farmers during Covid-19

Even during the testing times of the global pandemic of Covid-19, the state govt established 5953 government centres for purchasing Rabi crops. Purchasing of 35.75 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and 38717 metric tonnes of gram was done.

The price of these purchases was transferred to their accounts by DBT. Moreover, experts from agriculture, garden, animal husbandry communicated directly with farmers through live streaming to provide them technical information.

Action plan for ramping up rural infrastructure

In recent visit to Mumbai, Yogi Adityanath held meet with Dr. Govind Rajula Chintala, Chairman of NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development). Chief Minister sough co-operaton from NABARD in construction of rural roads and development of useful infrastructure facilities for agriculture including warehouses, cold storage etc.

He also instructed the APC (Commissioner of Agricultural Production) to prepare an action plan with regards to this.

Sugar mills to be upgraded to make ethanol

CM Yogi also urged NABARD chairman to finance projects like the Saryu Canal and the Arjuna tributary canals, which have been hanging fire for many years now, in order to fulfil the slogan of ‘Per Crop More Drop’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This will benefit lakhs of farmers from many districts of Purvanchal and Madhya Pradesh. On the suggestion of the Chief Minister, the chairman of the bank assured to help in upgrading the state sugar mills, crusher units, micro, small and medium industries MSME units and dairy industries related to making ethanol.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister had said that sugar production in Uttar Pradesh is double than our consumption. Sugar prices are low in the international market as well. In this case, the government wants to upgrade the sugar mills of the Federation and Cooperative to set up an ethanol plant.