CM: Farmers at centre of govt’s agenda even during pandemic

Centre launched several schemes under the guidance of Prime Minister to enhance the income of farmers, he says

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said farmers and agriculture remained at the centre of his government’s agenda even during the difficult circumstances arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said several schemes had been launched under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to enhance the income of farmers.

He was speaking at a chief ministers’ conference organised virtually to mull over ways to double the income of farmers. Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar and commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal were also connected to the programme. The function, the chief minister said, would help states plan policies and execute them more effectively to achieve the target of doubling farmers’ income.

The CM said making sufficient nutrition and safe food available to people was today’s biggest challenge. He also said hard work by farmers with government assistance ensured that there was no scarcity of essential items like food grain, pulses, vegetables, fruits, milk etc during the pandemic.

Uttar Pradesh had made new records of food grain production during the last five years. “Between 2012-2017, the average paddy production was only 139.40 lakh MT which has risen to 163.45 lakh MT now,” he said,

adding the “production of all other food grains and pulses had also increased in a similar manner.”

The government, he claimed, had made a new record by clearing Rs 1,42,366 crore to

45.74 lakh sugarcane farmers till now. He mentioned several schemes in the state to increase the income of farmers. He said the government would soon roll out a new scheme aimed at making farmers self-reliant.