Empowering small farmers key to boosting India's GDP: Union Minister Narendra Tomar

Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday said empowering small farmers is key to boosting India's GDP.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday said empowering small farmers is key to boosting India's Gross domestic product (GDP). Given small farmers constitute 85 per cent of the farming community and who face the challenge of a lack of private investment, their empowerment is crucial.

He was speaking at an event after launching the Kisan Tak channel and its website of the India Today Group here on Tuesday. Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Tomar mentioned about its 10,000 Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) plans with an outlay of Rs 6,865 crore, which he said was to boost the economic capacity of the small farmers.

While in the plains, 300 farmers can form an FPO, in the Hilly and North-Eastern Region 100 farmers can join to form an FPO. The Agriculture Minister said that in 2013-14 the Agriculture Budget was Rs 21,000 crore, which has been increased by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to Rs 125,000 crore at present. He informed that Rs 2,40,000 crore has been disbursed through PM Kisan Samman to 11.5 crore farmers.

PM Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme in 2019. The scheme aims to provide income support to all landholder farmer families across the country with cultivable land, subject to specific exclusions. Under the Scheme, an amount of Rs 6000 per year is released in three instalments of Rs 2000 each directly into the beneficiaries' bank accounts. (ANI)

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