Industry and farming community need to join hands to enhance farmers’ income

Chandigarh, September 12, 2023: In an effort to create awareness and encourage adoption of the latest technologies in the agri sector for farmers to compete at a global scale, a call for policy intervention reverberated at the Culmination Ceremony of the CII Innovative Farmers Meet, held today in Chandigarh.
 

“With a view to increasing farmers’ income and addressing the challenge of water scarcity and fragmented land holdings, there is a need for policy intervention to encourage diversification from the wheat-paddy cropping cycle into alternate cropping system, horticulture and other allied agriculture activities, along with ensuring robust marketing mechanism and infrastructure development,” said  J P Dalal, Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Dairying & Animal Husbandry, Government of Haryana, while addressing the agriculture sector stakeholders.

 
There is a need to diversify agriculture for which the government will have to create a market for the produce and take responsibility for the risk involved in transforming agriculture that farmers cannot take, he further added.
 

Highlighting the initiatives taken by the state government, Dalal also highlighted that the state government is dedicated towards expanding the horticulture area and increasing production. In this regard, it is working closely with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to develop a multi-million-dollar horticulture supply chain project in Haryana. On the role of Innovative Farmers Meet, he added that “this forum has been the right platform to connect farmers and industry, providing the farmers with opportunities that can help sell their produce globally.”

 
K A P Sinha, Special Chief Secretary – Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Government of Punjab in his address echoed the need for a paradigm shift in agricultural innovation. He stressed the importance of government support in developing requisite infrastructure for all crops, such as cold chain and storage facilities, to make it easier for farmers to manage their produce effectively.
 

On the role of Horticulture as the next growth driver in agriculture, Dr Shailender Kaur, Director, Horticulture, Government of Punjab, highlighted that innovative farming practices such as mushroom cultivation, beekeeping, floriculture, sericulture etc. are some activities that should be adopted by the farmers along with conventional farming as it is feasible with the amount of land available with them. Dr Kaur called for collective efforts to establish crop-specific clusters, fostering economies of scale, and facilitating the development of new varieties of seed which are easily processable and ensuring integrated value chains.
 

Further emphasizing collective efforts, Dr Jaswant Singh, Director- Agriculture, Government of Punjab highlighted the initiatives by the Government of Punjab in Agriculture and shared that the state has emphasized adopting the DSR (Direct-Seeded Rice) technique to manage the water situation in the state. Punjab has also introduced Surface Seeder Machinery to address the issue of management of paddy stubble and at the same time uniformly broadcasting seeds and basal fertiliser, during paddy harvesting, he added.
 

The Confederation of Indian Industry had organised a series of Innovative Farmers’ Meets from 31 July to 12 September at various locations of Haryana and Punjab i.e., Siwani, Hisar, Amritsar and Sangrur respectively, which was attended by more than 10,000 farmers. The Meets provided an enabling platform for the farmers to leverage the experience of experts and create a win-win situation for all stakeholders.