Agri-clinics initiative to go pan-India to help farmers: Chouhan
Shivraj Singh Chouhan
NEW DELHI: The Centre will promote the agri-clinics initiative across the country to provide expert advice and services to farmers on various aspects of farming, Union agriculture minister
Shivraj Singh Chouhan
said on Tuesday.
He said the issue of how to expand the network of agri-clinics was discussed in detail on Tuesday, in light of inputs received by officials and scientists from farmers during their fortnight-long (May 29-June 12) 'Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan', a pan-India campaign to connect scientists with farmers under the Centre's 'lab to land' initiative.
A pan-India network of such clinics would help farmers get crop-specific advice when they faced problems with their standing crops or relating to use of inputs such as pesticides and fertilisers.
Though the agriculture ministry has been implementing the 'Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres' scheme in collaboration with Nabard since 2002, the initiative has not gained the desired traction.
The initiative was devised in a way that it could tap the expertise available in the large pool of agriculture graduates and facilitate their setting up agri-clinics or agri business centres to offer professional extension services to innumerable farmers.
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The agri-clinics are expected to assist farmers on soil health, cropping practices, plant protection and post-harvest technology.
At Tuesday's meeting, the ministry also decided to discuss crop-specific issues with farmers, given that every crop throws up its own set of challenges.
Chouhan said the ministry will launch the exercise by engaging with soybean farmers in Madhya Pradesh on June 26, followed by similar discussions on cotton, sugarcane, pulses and oilseeds in different states.
At another meeting, the ministry approved the procurement of moong (green gram) and urad (black gram) in Madhya Pradesh, and urad in Uttar Pradesh under the centrally funded Price Support Scheme (PSS).
The scheme is implemented as and when market prices of notified pulses and oilseeds fall below the notified minimum support price (MSP) during peak harvesting period, providing remunerative prices to farmers.
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