Govt. has sufficient funds to provide irrigation facility in each village across India: Radha Mohan Singh

The Central Government has adequate funds to provide irrigation facilities under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) to all villages across India and it will not remain limited to the planned outlay of Rs 50,000 crore (during 2015-16 to 2019-20) if the scheme is implemented by states in a fast manner, Union Agriculture minister, Mr Radha Mohan Singh said at an ASSOCHAM event.

Our only aim is to provide irrigation facility to all farms across India and in order to reach that goal, the Cabinet had passed the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana yesterday, Rs 50,000 crore have been allotted for next five years and Rs 5,300 crore for this year but as fast as state governments spend on this scheme, the PM has assured that there will be no dearth of funds, said Mr Singh while inaugurating a conference on 'National Agriculture Market: Empowering farmers & moderating food inflation,' organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

The Krishi Sinchayee Yojana should have been implemented quite earlier as it was of great need for our country as there are no irrigation facilities for 55-60 per cent of farm land and India cannot prosper if villages and farmers are not strengthened, said the minister.

Until every farm gets water, Modi Sarkar will keep working in this behalf, he said.

Talking about the Rashtriya Krishi Bazar, the minister said, We are working on it and in another 5-6 months we would be able to link 585 mandis with single software, it might take some time at states' level but we will be able to launch it, the Prime Minister has allotted Rs 200 crore for this to improve infrastructure, provide computers, hire IT professionals and others to link all the mandis together.

He also said that the Government has so far linked 27 states with the Rashtriya Khadya Suraksha Mission and states had been given Rs 1,800 crore in 2014-15 with prior guidelines to spend half of the amount on pulses and oilseeds alone to reduce India's dependence on import of pulses and oilseeds from other countries.

Resultantly, you will see that till June 26 this year, pulses acreage is 11 lakh hectares against seven lakh hectares that was till June 26, 2014, while in terms of oilseeds it has increased from 7 lakh hectares to 20 lakh hectares this year, said Mr Singh.

He also said that conditions of farmers has not improved since the time of India's independence evidently as agriculture sector's contribution to the economy had declined from over 50 per cent to 16 per cent this year.

The minister said that focus must be laid upon improving the agriculture productivity to empower the villages and farmers as population keeps growing while there is no scope to enhance the farming area.

He also said that indiscriminate use of fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides over the years has resulted in deterioration of soil quality over the years in various states across India.

I was highly surprised that in such a large country and in so many years we could only spend Rs 7,200 crore on soil health management and provide just 13 soil health mobile laboratories during 2007-08 till March 31, 2014, said Mr Singh.

He said that previous government had made no plans to take up the soil health card on a mission mode as whatever funds were provided to the states as part of soil health management and Krishi Vikas Yojana, the state governments used only a small part of it.

In his address at the conference, Mr Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO, Yes Bank and president, ASSOCHAM said, Agriculture is by far the single biggest enabler of inclusive growth for India and has been duly placed on top priority in the Union Budget, with focus on growth, investments and development. The proposal to set up a Unified National Market for agri commodities, in close coordination with State Governments, will promote seamless movement of produce from farm to fork and accelerate growth of the sector.

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