In the course of the meeting, Union territories were asked to offer all the assistance required to farmers and banks to cover all eligible farmers to conduct camps at the branch level for obtaining KCC forms.
The advantages of Central schemes for agriculture must be reaped by the right farmers. While funds aren’t the only issue, it’s the application of the scheme that should be correct when addressing the lieutenant governors’ conference and the administrators of all union territories the Federal Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Wednesday.
Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor, Jammu & Kashmir and Admiral DK Joshi Lieutenant Governor Andaman as well as the Nicobar Islands participated in the discussion and presented an outline of execution of various schemes by the Central government in their respective UTs. Delegates from other UTs were also present during the discussions.
At the conference, talks were made to everyone in UTs by top officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on Central schemes run by the Union government to welfare of farmer. The general status of beneficiary payments, as well as the self-registration process of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-Kisan), was discussed. In order to ensure greater coverage and to transfer benefits to beneficiaries who are eligible, UTs were asked to adopt the following measures: updating the beneficiary database and the village wise beneficiary list to be displayed in the gram panchayats to facilitate social audit as well as digital land records that will be integrated into the PM-Kisan’s database, physical verification to be completed within an agreed timeframe, and the grievances that are pending to be addressed in a priority manner and recovering ineligible or IT payee farmers accomplished.
UTs were informed of the PM Kisan Maandhan Yojana and the current status of beneficiaries. An explanation of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) was provided. UTs were informed about the eligible activities under the AIF. The presentation illustrated investment opportunities of over Rs.1700 crore and employment opportunities of over 20,000 in seven UTs under activities like dry storage, packing, cold storage, ripening chambers, reefer vehicles, smart and precision farming, among other activities related to AIF.
In the course of the meeting, UTs were asked to provide all assistance needed for farmers and banks in order to provide all eligible farmers to organize camps at banks’ branches in order to accept applications in order to get Kisan Credit Card (KCC) and to organize an assembly of the gram of sabha, to inform farmers about the drive, and to hold a review meeting regularly. The state of implementation in UTs for the PM-Fasal Bima Yajana was also discussed. A NMEO-OP Oil Palm mission and the oil palm strategy were discussed, with a particular focus on Andaman Nicobar. Opportunities for an oilseeds crop within two UTs (J&K and Ladakh) were also discussed. The presentation also discussed the sub-mission of seeds and plant items (SMSP). The presentation also covered the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture and plans executed by the Marketing Division.
Taking note of the Kisan Credit Card drive, the agriculture minister stated that Farmers were provided with the Kisan Credit Card cover even under Covid-19. Since February 2020, the government has been running a campaign for farmers to receive KCC in order to cover all left-over farmers, with a special focus on PM-Kisan beneficiaries. KCC has already disbursed an estimated 14 lakh crore through loans to farmers through Thomas Tomar, who said that the current year’s loan target was Rs 16 lakh crore.
The minister stated his intention was that Agriculture Infrastructure Fund would help farmers obtain loans that are easy to obtain for the development of farm-gate infrastructure. This will help small farmers with the storage and security of their crops.
As part of the Digital Agriculture Mission, Tomar said the database of 5.5 crore farmers had been created and would reach 8 crore by December. The union territories were urged to cooperate in this matter. According to Tomar, the union territories have a lot of potential for the cultivation of high-value crops and oil palm in accordance with global standards.
Participants included Kailash Choudhary, the Secretary of MoAFW; Shobha Karandlaje, the Secretary of MoAFW, with all the UTs and progressive farmers as well as senior officials from the MoAFW.
