Villages, farmers to play crucial role in deciding India's future: PM Modi

New Delhi [India], August 9 : Indian villages and farmers will play a crucial role in deciding the country's condition when it completes 100 years of independence in 2047, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.
Addressing the nation after releasing an instalment of financial benefit under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), the Prime Minister said the milestone of completing 75 years of Independence on August 15 will mark an occasion for new resolutions and goals.
"August 15 is going to come a few days from now. This time the country is going to celebrate its 75th Independence Day. This important milestone is not only a matter of pride for us, it is also an opportunity for new resolutions, new goals. We have to take this opportunity to decide where we want to see India in the coming 25 years," said PM Modi.
He said that in 2047, "our farming, villages and farmers will play a crucial role in deciding the condition of the country."
"It's time to provide such direction to agriculture that it'll be able to face new challenges and benefit from new opportunities," he stated.
He noted that for the past several days, as he had interactions with the beneficiaries of different government schemes, the government got to know how the benefits of the schemes made by the government are reaching the people.
The Prime Minister informed that the government has made the biggest ever procurement of crops from farmers at minimum support price (MSP), "be it Kharif or Rabi season."
"With this, about one lakh seventy thousand crore rupees have reached the account of paddy farmers and about eighty-five thousand crore rupees directly in the account of wheat farmers," he said.
Informing about the new government schemes, Prime Minister said the government has decided that saffron from Jammu and Kashmir will be available at National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) shops across the country.
Remembering the shortage of pulses in markets across the country some years back, PM Modi said he had urged the farmers of the country to increase the production of pulses.
"The farmers of the country accepted my request. As a result, there has been an increase of almost 50 per cent in the production of pulses in the country in the last 6 years," he informed.
To become Atmanirbhar in the production of edible oil, PM Modi said the government has taken a resolve of National Edible Oil Mission-Oil Palm ie NMEO-OP has been resolved. "Today, when the country is remembering the Quit India Movement, on this historic day this resolve fills us with a new energy," he added.
He further noted that today, for the first time, India has reached among the top-10 countries of the world in terms of agricultural exports.
The Prime Minister also noted that country has experienced the changes happening around the world in the last one and a half years due to the corona pandemic, and said, "During this period, awareness has come about the food habits in the country itself. The demand for coarse cereals, spices, vegetables, fruits, organic products is increasing rapidly."
He further stated that now these small farmers are being given top priority in the agricultural policies of the country.