New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday released the 12th installment of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi of more than Rs 16,000 crore for over 8 crore farmers across the country as a Diwali gift to them.
The Prime Minister on the occasion also kicked off a campaign to develop 3.25 lakh fertiliser shops across the country into Kisan Samridhi Centres, which will serve as a one-stop shop for providing all information related to farming, soil health and seeds and fertilisers apart from providing fertilisers and urea to the farmers. There are currently 600 Kisan Samridhi Centres in the country.
Addressing a gathering, PM Modi said that the country is moving towards having one nation, one fertiliser to ensure provision of cost-effective quality urea and fertlisers to the farmers across the country with availability of a single brand called “Bharat”.
कृषि क्षेत्र में आत्मनिर्भरता के लिए एक बड़ी चुनौती का जिक्र मैं अपने किसान साथियों और इनोवेटर्स से जरूर करना चाहूंगा… pic.twitter.com/i001iA9BtF
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 17, 2022
Taking a dig at previous governments the PM said, “During those day, farmers had to struggle a lot to decide which fertilisers to use as dealers distributed brands that paid them bigger commission. We ended this practice through neem coating of urea. Previously many fertiliser factories were shut down to promote foreign products and earn commission, we made efforts to reopen six of the largest indigenous fertiliser companies.”
The Prime Minister added that the war in Ukraine has led to spiralling of fertiliser prices in the international market. “We are currently paying Rs 70 to Rs 80 per kg of fertiliser imported from countries, which are involved in the war. But, we are making it available to farmers at Rs 5 per kg. We are also working producing liquid nano urea, which will be many times more effective than the traditional urea. A bottle of liquid nano urea will be equivalent to one bag of traditional urea, the PM remarked.
Emphasising the need for achieving self-reliance in agricultural production and embracing new technologies in this context, Modi said that India has made rapid strides in embracing new technologies in the agricultural sector in the last eight years to tackle present and future challenges.
Modi said that despite the Covid pandemic, India’s exports have gone up by 18 percent and many products such as Gujarat’s dragon fruit, Himachal Pradesh’s black ginnger Bhagalpur’s Jardalu mango and Karnataka’s jackfruit powder among others are being exported in huge quantities abroad.
The Prime Minister said that Kisan Samman Nidhi has benefitted farmers immensely by providing them money at a time when they needed it the most to buy seeds and fertlisers, adding that so far Rs 2 lakh crore has been provided to the farmers under the scheme.
The Prime Minister also stressed the importance of micro irrigation, pointing out that the Government has started the practice on 70 lakh hectares of land. He added: “Besides, 22 crore soil health cards have been issued and 1700 new seeds conducive to climate change have been developed.”
The PM concluded: “Prior to 2014, there were two food parks, today there are 23. Small and marginal farmers possessing 1 to 1.5 hectares are benefitting from government’s schemes. As many as 1.75 crore farmers and 2,5 lakh traders are connected to the National Agriculture Market (eNAM) while transactions worth Rs 2 lakh crore have taken place to date through the online medium.”
