Agricultural Institutions Will Provide New Opportunities, Will Connect Farming with Research and Advanced Technology: PM

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, August 29: The centre is planning to introduce agriculture as a subject at the middle school level in villages to help the students develop agriculture-related knowledge and communicate the farm-based information, its modern techniques and marketing to their family members and other villagers, the prime minister Narendra Modi announced on Saturday.

He was inaugurating the College and Administration Buildings of Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, through video conferencing and interacted with the students of the University.

Modi said introduction of agriculture in the middle level schools would help taking the agricultural knowledge-related information to the villages right from the inception and contribute in developing both farming and agro-based industries.

Pointing out that the government was making steady efforts to connect farming with modern technology, Modi noted that Research Institutions and Agricultural Universities had a vital role to play. He said presently there were three Central Agricultural Universities in the country, compared to just one Central University six years ago. Besides this, three more National Institutions viz. Indian Agricultural and Research Institutes (IARI), Jharkhand, IARI Assam and Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Integrated Farming in Motihari, Bihar were also being established. He remarked that these institutes would not only give new opportunities to the students, but would also help in increasing their capacity, in providing technology benefits to the local farmers.

Speaking about use of modern technology in meeting agriculture related challenges, the Prime Minister gave an example of recent locust attack. He said the Government worked on war footing to control the spread of the attacks and to reduce the damage. He mentioned that dozens of control rooms were set up in several cities, arrangements were made to alert farmers in advance, drones to spray, dozens of modern spray machines used to kill locusts were procured and provided to farmers.

Modi said in the last six years, the Government had endeavoured to establish a link between research and farming and to provide scientific advice to the farmers at the ground levels in the villages. He sought the cooperation of the universities in developing the ecosystem to streamline the flow of knowledge and expertise from campus to agriculture fields.

The Prime Minister noted that Agriculture had a major role to contribute in the “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.” He said self-reliance in Agriculture target at making farmers both producers and entrepreneurs. He said in line with the goal, several historic agricultural reforms had been undertaken. “Just like other industries, now farmers can also sell their produce anywhere in the country, wherever they fetch better prices,” he said. A special dedicated fund of Rs. One lakh crore had been set up for providing better facilities and promoting industries in a cluster based approach, he added.

Outlining the developmental measures being taken in UP and more precisely Bundelkhand, one of the driest areas in the biggest state in the country, the prime minister also talked about the steps taken to minimize the problems faced by the people during the coronavirus pandemic. He said free rations were being provided to crores of poor and rural families in UP. Around 10 lakh poor women in Bundelkhand had been given free gas cylinders during this period. Under Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan, over Rs 700 crores spent in UP so far, under which employment was provided to lakhs of workers.

The Prime Minister said, as promised earlier, the campaign to provide drinking water to every house was being executed at a rapid pace. Around 500 water related projects worth more than Rs 10,000 crores had  been approved for this area. Out of this, work on Projects worth Rs 3000 crores had already commenced in the last two months which would directly benefit lakhs of families in Bundelkhand. He added that work  was in progress on Atal Groundwater Scheme to raise the level of groundwater in Bundelkhand. He said work on projects involving more than Rs 700 crores were underway to increase the water level in hundreds of villages of Jhansi, Mahoba, Banda, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot and Lalitpur as well as West UP.

The PM congratulated everyone and expressed hope that students after graduating from the university would actively contribute in empowering the country’s agricultural sector. He hoped that new facilities provided due to the new building would encourage and motivate students to work harder.

Invoking Rani Lakshmi Bai’s Quote that “I will not give my Jhansi”, the Prime Minister urged the people of Jhansi and Bundelkhand to make Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan a success.