Tomar urges farmers to take benefit of Govt's agri-reforms

New Delhi: Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday urged farmers to take the benefit of the Government’s farm reforms that are not only aimed at improving their lives, but also boosting the agriculture sector. Tomar was addressing the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s (ICAR) 93rd Foundation Day and award ceremony virtually.

On the occasion, the Minister also launched an Information Communication and Technology (ICT) based platform ‘Kisan Sarathi’ to support agriculture at the local level with a national perspective.  Through this platform, officials at various levels can view and monitor daily activities such as farmer registration, live calls, messages, advisories given and pending.

Tomar said the Modi government is continuously strengthening the foundation of the country’s agriculture sector, which lagged due to the neglectful policies of the previous regime.

“The agri reforms undertaken by the central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are going to bring a change in the lives of the



farmers. If farmers across the country take advantage of these agricultural reforms will prove to be revolutionary for them as well as increase the contribution of the farm sector in the economy,” an official statement quoted Tomar as saying at the ICAR’s event.

At one time, the contribution of the agriculture sector in GDP was about 50 per cent, but the sector lagged due to the neglectful policies adopted by the then governments, he said.

“But now since Modi became the Prime Minister, the foundation of the agriculture sector is continuously being strengthened,” he added.  Tomar said the Prime Minister has emphasised the overall progress of the agriculture sector, including reducing the cost of farmers, paying attention to soil health, adopting micro-irrigation methods, reducing the use of pesticides, and organic-natural farming.

Union Minister of Electronics, Railways and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnav assured to work in the interest of farmers in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture.