 "Narendra Modi")
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the nation from the Red Fort on 78th Independence Day, in New Delhi, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (PTI Photo)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the Central government is making comprehensive efforts to improve the lives of farmers and the need of the hour is to transform the country’s agriculture system.
Delivering his Republic Day speech from the ramparts of Red Fort, Modi said the government is trying to ensure that farmers get easy access to loans, modern technology, value addition for their farm produce, and marketing support.
The Prime Minister stressed the need to move away from centuries-old traditions being followed in the agriculture sector and said the government is providing help to farmers for the transformation.
He further said farmers are now getting easy loans as well as technological help.
“We are working for value addition to what the farmer produces. We make complete arrangements for marketing so that there is an arrangement for hand-holding from end-to-end everywhere, we are working in that direction,” Modi said.
Modi further said when the world was worried that the health of Mother Earth was deteriorating due to the excess use of fertilizers, lakhs of Indian farmers chose the path of natural farming.
He said the government has allocated significant funds in the Union Budget to promote natural farming.
Radio show for farmers
Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, later in the day while addressing the farmers who had come from all parts of India for the I-Day celebrations, said that to ensure farmers get the benefit of modern scientific developments, the ministry is starting a monthly interactive talk show- ‘Kisano Ki Baat’- on the radio.
The radio programme will be modelled on the lines of Prime Minister Modi’s popular show ‘Mann Ki Baat’.
Chouhan said through the talk show, farmers can interact directly with scientists, senior officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, and even with him to enlist their problems and get details of different programmes and schemes.
The first day episode of the radio show is likely to start from next month.
Chouhan also said that a national mission on natural farming is being framed which would give a fresh lease of life to such agriculture.
The minister also launched the National Pest Surveillance System (NPPS), which uses advanced technologies such as AI to accurately detect pest infestation in crops on time and help in devising appropriate responses. It works with almost 95 percent accuracy.
Proud women are becoming self-reliant: Modi
Modi, meanwhile, in his speech also highlighted the work done by 10 crore women through the Self-Help Groups (SHGs), saying that he feels proud that these women from ordinary rural families are now becoming economically independent and self-reliant.
“When women become financially independent, they start contributing to important decision-making in their families and become guarantors and custodians of social transformation,” Modi said.
First Published: Aug 15 2024 | 5:09 PM IST
