Government has pledged to make India the world's food basket, and very soon as many as 100 high-yielding varieties of seeds are going to be launched to boost farmers' income, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.
Minister Chouhan was addressing the Agriculture Leadership Conclave 2024 in Maharashtra, where he said better seeds and modern technology will help improve the per hectare crop yield, and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) will soon be launching high-yielding seeds.
Highlighting the need to bring down the cost of production for farmers, Minister Shivraj Chouhan said the doubling of Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme corpus and MSP support are going to be very helpful for farmers.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan said both crop insurance and crop diversification are essential in India's food security. "We import pulses, but this dependency should end. Tur, masur, urad dals will be purchased by government at MSP as much as they are produced", Chouhan added.
India is the largest producer and fifth largest exporter of millets in the world, and the government is keen to put similar focus on pulses and lentils as with millets.
The Union Cabinet had on June 19 approved Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for 14 Kharif season crops, including Paddy, Ragi, Bajra, Jowar, Maize, and Cotton. The expected margin to farmers over cost of production are estimated to be highest in case of bajra (77 percent) followed by tur (59 percent), maize (54 percent) and urad (52 percent).
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