Farm Minister Narendra Tomar says India has emerged as the 2nd largest food producer in the world.

NEW DELHI, Sep 20 (The CONNECT) – India is not only self-sufficient in food production, but can meet the requirements of a large part of the world.

Stating this, Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has declared that the country is moving ahead with strategic plans, keeping in mind the needs and challenges of the future. 

“We are aware that to sustain high food grain production, we have to increase productivity too,” he said addressing the ‘Leeds-2022 conference’ organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Incorporating new farming technology, sharing it with farmers and better irrigation system will reduce the cost of agriculture production and also result in increased production and productivity of food grains, he pointed out.

Tomar said that despite the Corona pandemic, India's agriculture sector has witnessed a significant achievement of 3.9% growth rate. Also, India’s agricultural exports crossed Rs 4 lakh crore mark.

Tomar said that with the world population projected to be around 900 crore by the year 2050, the demand for food will increase rapidly, resulting in increase in demand for agricultural land, grazing land for livestock and fertilizers and genetically modified crops.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, agriculture has expanded significantly in the country in recent years and India has emerged as the second largest food producer in the world, he said. India’s geography, climate and soils are very diverse, so it is naturally excellent in producing a wide range of agricultural commodities. The country can grow more crops than any other nation. India has the highest cropping density in the world. According to the fourth advance estimate, India's foodgrain production in the year 2021-22 is 315.72 tonnes, he said.

The Union Minister said that the PLI scheme for food processing is being implemented with an incentive of Rs 10,900 crore in the next 6 years, at the same time, under the Krishi Udan scheme, assistance and incentives are being provided for the movement of agricultural products by air transport, which is especially beneficial for the Northeast and tribal areas. Farmers, freight forwarders and airlines are benefiting from this. Digital Agri Mission has also been started. Technology will increase transparency, so that farmers will get full benefits of all the schemes. Drone technology is also being promoted. The more technology and transparency in agriculture increases, the more profit will be there.

He explained that the National Oil Palm Mission has been started with the expenditure of Rs.11,000 crores. Under the leadership of India, International Year of Millets will be celebrated next year, the preparations for which are in full swing.