Scheme to make scientists adopt villages, promote best farming practices

Following the footsteps of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the agriculture ministry is planning to start a scheme under which all scientists of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will adopt one village each and promote best farming practices and government's policies.

To be called "Mera Gaon… Mera Gaurav" (My Village... My Pride), the programme seeks to imbibe a sense of ownership among the agricultural scientists of the country.

"The programme will be first implemented with the help of ICAR scientists, which will be later extended to students from agriculture universities as well," a senior agriculture ministry official said.

He said the basic idea was to bring a sense of ownership among agriculture scientists and also ensure that farmers benefit from best farm practices.

ICAR has 6,000-8,000 scientists on its rolls across all grades, while the number of agriculture science students is much higher. India has around 600,000 villages spread across the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (Parliamentarians Model Village Scheme) was launched on August 15, where all the over 800 members of Parliament (Lok Sabha and

Rajya Sabha) have been asked to adopt one village in their constituencies.

These will be turned into model villages by 2016 or two or more model villages by 2019. Till date, many MPs have adopted one or two villages in their constituencies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself adopted Jayapur village in the Varanasi constituency represented by him in the Lok Sabha.

Officials said in the Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav concept, a similar model will be adopted, but special emphasis will be on inculcating best agricultural practices and executing schemes and programmes related to the agriculture sector.

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh has held several review meetings in the last few days to formalise the scheme.