Guwahati : On the occasion of completion of the four years of the Union Government, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare interacted with the radio jockeys from various radio stations from Assam here today as a part of the several programmes that were held to mark the occasion. Radio jockeys from radio stations like FM Rainbow, Radio GupShup, Big FM among others were present in the occasion.
In the informal interaction, the Minister talked about the various achievements and schemes in the field of Agriculture taken by the NDA Government. He said, “The focus is on development, on building the nation. There is a huge shift in how development is perceived over the last four years. There is a remarkable change in every sphere and Indian politics has acquired a new direction.”
“The farmers of our country have two major problems hindering in their growth i.e. the constantly changing climate and the monsoon season. A major percentage of our farmers are still hugely dependent on rainfall for the production of their crops; our government is working on various schemes to remove these obstacles”, he said. He went on to talk about the impact of these schemes on the agriculture scenario of the country, “Fasal Bima Yojana is a huge step towards that and we have invested one lakh crore in that scheme already. 6 crore farmers of our country is registered under the Yojana”.
Replying to a question on the need to enlighten the youth, Shekhawat said, “The need of the hour is to make the education system agriculture-centric. It is good to see youths returning to farming. We are also focusing on developing young entrepreneurs. In our country, even if someone has the skills, the banks were not ready to give them loans because they lacked the provision for providing mortgage for the loan. Under the “Mudra” scheme, we are helping the young people to come out and start working on their dream start-ups.” He also urged the youth to think outside the box and to work passionately for a social cause to be able to bring a transformation.
Talking about research in the agriculture sector, he said, “As far as research is concerned, a total of 103 institutes in the country are constantly researching in every field in farming and its related areas. However, our main concern should be on the transition of technology & research from “lab to land” which means to get the famers connected to these research outcomes and findings so that they get benefitted from it.”He also talked about revolutionizing the agriculture sector through organic farming and bringing a green revolution.
The Union minster also chaired a review meeting on Agri-Horti sector organised by the Department of Agriculture, Government of Assam.