Govt to soon register 10,000 new FPOs

The government will register 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in order to promote cooperative farming, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Thursday.

A budgetary provision has been made to provide each FPO a sum of Rs. 15 lakh for all farming related activities ranging from sowing, harvesting to distribution and marketing, he added.

The minister was addressing 91st Annual General Meeting of the ICAR Society here. He is also President of the Society.

Tomar also talked about doubling of farmers' income and called for wider dissemination of government schemes so that the benefits percolate down to the lowest level among the farmers, an official statement said.

On the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), he said the crop insurance has now been made voluntary for farmers to alleviate concerns that insurance companies were gaining more than farmers, besides reports of malpractice at lower level during inspection.

"With a view to alleviating such concerns, the crop insurance scheme has been turned voluntary now and premium also remains the same," he said.

Against the total sum of Rs 13,000 crore premium collected by insurance companies, a total of Rs 58,000 crore insurance benefits have been paid to farmers, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal called for synergy between the various R&D institutions under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), universities and academia, PSUs and industry so that the huge investments being made by each of them yields bigger returns.

The prime minister has set a goal to make India a USD 5 trillion economy in five years and the agricultural sector will be a big factor towards achieving the goal, he said.

More R&D in agriculture, timely availability of farm credit, mechanised farming and automation will be critical to boost rural economy, he added.

In his address, Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation and Planning Rao Inderjit Singh underlined the need to avoid duplication of R&D.

Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala called for increased digitisation for targeted agriculture subsidies and rural schemes.

Rupala said more capital is required in actual R&D since at least 70 per cent share of government research body Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Budget goes towards salaries and allowances.

He also called for scaling up PPP model with ICAR R&D Extension programme.

Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Pratap Chandra Sarangi said the agricultural laboratories should be made common property with the participation of all concerned including students and farmers.

Underlining the role of agriculture sector in India's economy, Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary, said concerted efforts are required towards fulfilling the Prime Minister's goal of doubling farmers' income.