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Farm reforms will help turn farmers into entrepreneurs: Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi said his government's 'historic' farm reforms will create opportunities to take farmers to entrepreneurship and added his regime is focused on increasing their income

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses after launching 'Fit India Age Appropriate Fitness Protocols' during an online Fit India Dialogue, to celebrate the first anniversary of the Fit India Movement, in New Delhi on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Press Trust of India Mumbai

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on

Tuesday said his government's 'historic' farm reforms will create opportunities to take farmers to entrepreneurship and added his regime is focused on increasing their income.

Modi was speaking after releasing the autobiography of former Union Minister Balasaheb Vikhe Patil and renaming the Pravara Rural Education Society in Ahmednagar district after the Padma Bhushan recipient, via video conferencing.

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Terming the farm reforms as historic, the prime minister said, "Today opportunities are being created to take farming and farmers from the role of annadata (food provider) to entrepreneurship."

Referring to high milk, sugar, and wheat production in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab, Modi said such models of local enterprise will take the country forward.

 

He said there was a time after Independence when the country did not have sufficient food stock.

"The governments priority then was to increase food production. So the entire focus was on increasing production. Farmers toiled hard to achieve the objective," Modi said.

"But governments and policies did not pay attention towards profitability of farmers while being concerned about increasing productivity.

"People forgot about income for farmers. But for the first time, this thinking has been changed," he said and listed steps the Centre has taken for the welfare of farmers.

Noting that the COVID-19 threat still persists, Modi called for observing social distancing norms and maintaining effective personal hygiene.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: Oct 13 2020 | 12:44 PM IST

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