Taking a huge leap forward for the development of agriculture and allied areas, the government of Rajasthan along with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has organised a mega agriculture event — Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet (Gram) 2017 — at Kota.
Addressing the inaugural session, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said, “Farmers must not be involved with politics.”
Around 58,000 farmers and 70,000 visitors attended Gram 2016, the first of its kind event dedicated to farmers, in November last year.
Malaysia has joined hands with the Rajasthan government, along with Spain, Ukraine, Myanmar and Russia. Union minister for urban development M. Venkaiah Naidu was also present at the event.
Prabhulal Lal Saini, the agriculture minister of Rajasthan, highlighted the positives of his ministry on the occasion, such as improvement in farmers’ per capita income (Rs 64,000 to Rs 88,000) in the last three years.
The agriculture secretary of Rajasthan stated various initiatives taken by his government, including setting up 2,600 custom hiring centre (where farmers can borrow agriculture equipments for their use), diversification of crops, 30,000 solar pumps to produce 114 megawatt of electricity, among others. He also emphasised on the need for ministries to work on ‘private mandis with electronic-national agriculture mandi’ or e-NAM — a marketing initiative by Union government.
Irrigation, farm loan without interests, single window portal for farmers, new farming techniques such as hydroponics and airoponics (used in dry lands), initiatives of bearing 50 per cent of expenses by state government in setting food processing units (up to 40 lakh overall investment) by farmers in farm fields, highest subsidy in India to Rajasthan farmers for electricity, were among key features of Raje’s address.
BW Reporters
The author is correspondent with BW Businessworld
