Regular Update
ATM News Network: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the post-budget webinar on 'Agriculture and Cooperatives'. This is the second in a series of 12 post-budget webinars organised by the Government to brainstorm ideas for the effective implementation of the initiatives announced in the Union Budget-2023. In his address, the Prime Minister said that like in the last 8-9 years, a lot of importance has been given to Agriculture in this budget also. The Agriculture Budget, which was less than Rs.25,000 crore in 2014, has now been increased to more than Rs.1.25 lakh crores.
PM Modi said, “In recent years, every budget has been called the budget for the village, poor and the farmers.” In the concluding session, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said that the country is benefiting from the vision of Prime Minister Modi to organise a webinar after the budget.
In the keynote address at the beginning of the webinar, the PM said that after Independence, our Agriculture sector remained under the pressure of scarcity for a long time. We depended on the world for our food security, but our farmers have not only made us self-reliant, but today because of them we have also been able to export. Today India is exporting many types of agricultural products.
The PM said, “We have made it easy for farmers to access domestic and international markets, it is also to be kept in mind that whether it is self-reliance or exports, the target should not be limited to rice and wheat. For example, in 2021-22, Rs. 17,000 crore was incurred on the import of pulses and spent Rs. 25,000 crore on the import of value-added food products, besides edible oil imports cost us Rs.1.5 lakh crore in 2021-22. About Rs., 2 lakh crore was incurred on the import of so many items, which implies so much money has gone out, which could reach our farmers if we become Atma Nirbhar (self-reliant) in these products also.
“For the last few years, steps have been taken in the budget to take these sectors forward. We increased the MSP, promoted pulses production, and increased the number of food processing food parks. Along with this, work is going on in Mission mode to become completely self-sufficient in the matter of edible oils”, PM added
The Prime Minister said that unless we address the challenges related to the Agriculture sector, the goal of all-around development cannot be achieved. Today, many sectors of India are progressing rapidly, and our energetic youth are actively participating in it, but their participation in agriculture is less, while they also know about its importance and possibilities to move forward in it.
Various announcements have been made in this year's budget to fill the gaps of private innovation and investment, for example, the promotion of open source-based platforms in the Agriculture sector. We have put forth the digital public infrastructure as an open-source platform. This is the same as the open platform of UPI, through which digital transactions are taking place today.
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