National Food and Nutrition Campaign for farmers launched

Narendra Singh Tomar, union minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, recently launched the National Food and Nutrition Campaign for the farmers during an event organized by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Speaking at the event, Tomar said that India had made remarkable achievements in the field of food grains. He added, "Our country is number one or two in the world in agriculture and allied products. Our farmers and scientists have so much power that if we compete in the world, we can be number one in almost all commodities."

According to Tomar, today, production and increasing productivity is a "Matter of Pride" and happiness for all of us. Still, in the 75th year of independence, we are standing at a stage where we have to introspect and consider the challenges and their solutions. He added, "We have expertise in production, but it is also important to manage this abundance. It is the responsibility of the farmers along with the government to ensure that our products should be of better quality, meet global standards, farmers should be attracted towards costly crops, educated youth should be attracted towards agriculture while being environment-friendly."

Ghanshyam Khandelwal, chairman, BL Agro lauds the agriculture minister on his efforts, "The National Food and Nutrition Campaign for farmers is indeed a great initiative to fueling India's agri production potential. It is the responsibility of the farmers along with the government to ensure that our products should be of better quality, meet global standards. BL Agro as an establishment is seeded to the idea of good nutrition and better quality food produce, and lauds Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on his efforts to develop the agriculture sector and the nation as a whole and we as a brand has been vocal about Badalte Naye Bharat Se Nutrition Ka Vaada."

Noting that ICAR has been working successfully in agriculture, and the agriculture minister acknowledged the efforts to make agriculture and farmers connected with new technology. He further said, "It is the effort of the Government of India that farmers should learn new things, new seeds and techniques should reach them, but there is a limit to this, so it will be a win-win situation if farmers join the government's agricultural extension programs."

"Farmers associated with KVK should motivate other farmers for improved farming and ensure participation of all farmers in various schemes, including FPO, Agri Infra Fund, increasing the area of ​​organic farming under traditional farming. We all should try to make the whole village prosperous. With this, the development block, district, state and ultimately the country will prosper and India will be able to become self-reliant," he said.

Navneet Ravikar, chairman and managing director, Leads Connect, shared his views on connecting agriculture and farmers through new technology, "With India actively promoting diversification of agri-food systems through programs like National Palm Oil Mission, Leads Connect envisions Tech (AI & ML) based products backed with real-time data and patterns, enabling predictive and trend analysis that focuses on people-centric solutions encourage improved produce and processes. We welcome this initiative and the efforts taken up by the Ministry and believe in providing end-to-end farm risk management solutions to the farmers across India as well as other agri value chain key stakeholders."

The union minister also highlighted that prime minister Narendra Modi has been working continuously since 2014 based on a comprehensive approach. According to him, before Modi Government, the budget of agriculture of the Government of India was about 21 thousand crore rupees, which has now been increased to more than Rs 1.23 lakh crore. "Agriculture is our priority. Agriculture has proved its relevance time and again even in adverse conditions. Despite the COVID crisis, neither any agricultural institution was closed nor production was affected. Still, even in difficult conditions, more sowing and bumper production was achieved in the country," he added.

On this occasion, the union minister of state for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Kailash Choudhary, said, "The Government has resolved the problem of malnutrition under the leadership of the Prime Minister and has also launched several schemes and programs in this direction."

According to him, the year 2023 will be celebrated as the International Year of Millets under the leadership of India, which is a matter of pride for India.