Farmers backbone of nation, can't be made to suffer: VP

Vijay C Roy

Chandigarh, November 4

Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar today said the farmers are the backbone of the country and they cannot be made to suffer financially to sustain others.

FPOs can transform farm sector: ITC chief

The government has taken far-sighted steps to promote Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) with multi-dimensional schemes to support capacity building and value addition. This is the pivot that will transform Indian agriculture. Sanjiv Puri, ITC Chairman

He appealed to the farmers to think out of the box and asserted that all the stakeholders should come up with sustainable solutions to the problems, including climate change.

“India is on the rise as never before. It’s a global recognition. Our rise is unstoppable,” he said in his inaugural address at the 15th edition of the agriculture and food technology fair — CII Agro Tech India 2022 here.

“Our ultimate aim should be to generate sustainable incomes for our farmers. The farmer has to gain and he cannot be made to suffer financially to sustain others,” he said. He said India will be at platinum level in agriculture and in other areas by 2047.

“Great progress has been made by Indian agriculture over the past 75 years and this will continue in near future. We need to focus on not just food production but also on food processing and value addition. This will go a long way in transforming Indian agriculture in the 21st century,” he said.

He said with the contribution of our visionary policymakers, ingenious scientific minds and above all, our farmers, India has attained the feat of becoming the largest producer of millets, pulses, milk, and jute in the world and the second largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, vegetables, fruits, and cotton.

“Now during the ongoing ‘Amrit Kaal’, we have to adapt our agriculture according to new requirements and challenges. The focus must shift from food security to nutrition security. Also, innovation should become the key driver of agricultural growth with protection against climate change and price fluctuations,” he said.

Meanwhile, talking about the theme for this year, Sanjiv Puri, Chairman, CII Agro Tech India 2022, and CMD, ITC Ltd., said, “The theme ‘Digital Transformation for Sustainable Agriculture & Food Security’ aptly captures the challenges that agriculture faces and most importantly the opportunities that are immense for this sector.” Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya said though Haryana has a comparatively small geographical area, it is one of the biggest contributors to the food basket of India.

Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit said: “Punjab having land area of only 3% of the net cultivable land of the country contributes 25-35% of rice and 38-50% of wheat to the Central pool of foodgrain.”