New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched two major agriculture schemes worth a total of Rs 35,440 crore, including a mission for self-reliance in pulses. He called on farmers to increase production to meet domestic and global demand.
Addressing an event at the Pusa campus in the national capital, he said that farmers have a vital role to play in realising the dream of a developed India by 2047.
Modi said that the two major schemes (the ?24,000 crore Pradhan Mantri Dhan Dhanya Krishi Yojana and the ?11,440 crore Mission for Self-Reliance in Pulses) will "change the destiny of lakhs of farmers." The Prime Minister also inaugurated projects worth over ?5,450 crore in the agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and food processing sectors, while laying the foundation stone of additional projects worth about ?815 crore.
The Pradhan Mantri Dhan Dhanya Krishi Yojana aims to transform 100 underperforming agricultural districts based on the Aspirational District Programme model. The scheme will focus on increasing crop production in the selected districts, promoting crop diversification, improving irrigation and storage facilities and ensuring access to credit.
For the pulses mission, Modi has asked farmers to increase the area under pulses by 2030 to boost production and achieve self-reliance. Appealed to increase to 35 lakh hectares.
The mission aims to increase the production of pulses from the current 252.38 lakh tonnes to 350 lakh tonnes by 2030-31, which will reduce dependence on imports. Targeting the previous Congress government, he accused it of "neglecting" the agriculture sector and said the opposition party lacked "vision" for the development of this important sector.
Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Minister of State for Agriculture Bhagirath Chaudhary were present on the occasion.