• Initiatives taken by the Central Government for the welfare of farmers have started showing positive results- Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister.
• Minister said that the scientists of NRRI, Cuttack have developed CR Paddy 310 for the first time in the world which contains 11% protein while other species of rice generally contain protein only 6-7%.
• NRRI is carrying out researches on Doubled Haploid. He said that they are developing a technique which after having been successful will lead the farmers not to purchase the seed of hybrid rice species from the market.
• Through this technique the properties of hybrid rice will be transferred to other rice species.
• Minister said that after having formed the Government in May 2014, a number of programmes had been launched for the welfare of the farmers which resulted in positive changes in the lives of farmers.

 

• Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana:

1. Ithas been launched to provide relief to the farmers due to poor monsoon.
2. Under this scheme emphasis are being put on “water to each and every farm” that is to say to provide facilities of irrigation to each and every farmer along with enhancement of water conservation skill.
3. Government is committed to encourage investment in the field of irrigation on water conservation and regional level along with the management concerned.
4. Under assured irrigation scheme, emphasis is being laid on cultivable land, improvement in the skill of water conservation on the field, precision irrigation encouragement to the sophisticated technology to save water, to enhance the potentiality of aquifer, to use the waste water of Municipal Corporation etc.,
5. Through the above process irrigation projects are being promoted through private investment.

 

• Paramparagat Krishi VikasYoaja:

1. To promote bio-farming in the country,Government launched an initiative in 2015.
2. According to the scheme, the farmers are being encouraged to adopt bio-farming by making clusters in the country.
3. To be benefited from this scheme at least a cluster of 50 farmers is required along with an area of land with 50 acre.
4. Under this scheme, every farmer will be provided Rs. 20,000/- per acre for the span of three year.
5. Farmers will utilize this amount for the purchase of bio-seeds, harvesting and to transport the agricultural products to the local market.

 

• Soil Health Card Scheme:

1. Government has initiated Soil Health Card scheme to provide farmers Soil Health Card in a mission mode.
2. This card will contain the knowhow of the new trend in the soil and accordingly the required quantity of fertilizers.
3. Through this card, the farmers will know the fertility of their fields.
4. The expert will sort out the problem concerned with soil and through this card the farmers will monitor the change of quality related to the soil.

 

• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna:

1. Government of India has launched Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna to provide relief to the farmers inflicted with the loss of crop damage.
2. Under this scheme, the burden of premium will be reduced and their cases will be sorted out expeditiously.
3. Apart from the losses inflicted by crop damage, the provision has been made with this scheme to relieve the farmers from the losses in harvesting aftermath scenario.
4. This scheme provides assessment of local calamities along with a list on unseasonal rain form, land slide and floods.
5. Under this scheme the farmers are supposed to pay 2% for Kharif and 1.5% for  Rabi.
6. Rest of the premium will be deposited by the Government.
7. The Government has not prescribed any extent for subsidy.
8. The remaining premium is 90% that will be paid by the Government.
9. Under this scheme, remote sensing, smart phone and drone use is mandatory for the expeditious assessment of the crop damage.

 

 

• National Agriculture Market (e-NAM):

1. National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is all India electronic trading portal which aims at to form a unified national market for agricultural products by making a network for the markets related to the existing Agricultural Product Marketing Committee (APMC).
2. Idea is to develop a National Agriculture Market so as to transport the agricultural product from one market to another in a smooth way, to save the producers from a number of market duties and to provide agricultural product to the consumers on a fair price.
3. By Sep’ 2016 e-NAM will cover more than 200 agricultural markets and
4. By Mar’2018 such methodology will be developed for 585 markets which will facilitate the transportation of agricultural products to the market.
5. At present the farmers sell out their products through the Mandis or Bazar Committees which levy a number of duties on their products.
6. Now, there will be only one license for the whole State and duty will be levied only on one point.
7. Electronic auction will be conducted to know about the prices.
8. It will facilitate the way to convert the whole state to one market.
9. The farmers will obtain more alternative to sell out their products.
10. The transparency will be increased due to online platform and farmers will get better return.

• Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister said that digital technology will facilitate us to be linked with the others and to share our thoughts on different points.

 

• India emergence campaign through village emergence: 

• Government of India has launched a campaign named as India emergence through village emergence so as to improve the means of livelihood amongst the rural areas.
• To accelerate rural development process to strengthen Panchayati Raj across the country to establish social equality to create awareness about the agricultural schemes.

 

• My Village My Pride:

• A new scheme has been initiated to provide the methodology of scientific farming and a new technology to every village.
• For this purpose, all the experts of Agriculture University and ICAR Institutes spreads all over the country have been invited.
• Under this Scheme, 20,000 agriculture scientists have been engaged to adopt a village which is also involved to pay awareness to adopt the ways of sophisticated scientific farming and their implementation.
• Scientists of NRRI are in touch with farmers after having selected almost 92 villages.
• They are providing multi-dimensional information and sophisticated benefits to the farmers within prescribed time frame.

 

• Achievements of National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack:

• This Institute has developed 114 rice species for different agriculture climate condition.
• They developed a very important mobile app named as “rice expert” through which farmers will get information about the different pests inflicting loss to their paddy farmers.
• Rice expert also gives information on diseases related to paddy, different species of rice under different rice, agricultural devices and different activities after harvesting on their fields.