SME Times News Bureau | 10 Oct, 2021
Union
Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology;
Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO,
Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Jitendra Singh today said the Modi Govt is giving special impetus to
Agriculture Start-Ups .
He said, this is the golden period of
Agriculture happening in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and
technological interventions, research and innovation in agriculture
under his leadership will double the farmer’s income by 2022.
The
Minister said this while attending the concluding ceremony of 5-day
long Northern India Regional Agriculture Fair 2021 as chief guest at
SKUAST Jammu.
Speaking
on the occasion, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that PM Narendra Modi is
serious towards agriculture development in India that can be judged from
the fact that two new Ministries, Jal Shakti and Skill Development
& Entrepreneurship have been created only to promote agriculture and
doubling the farmers’ income by 2022.
He further mentioned that one of
its important links is the recently launched ‘Heli-Borne Survey
Technology for groundwater management & to map groundwater resources
in arid regions for drinking and agricultural purposes.
Dr
Jitendra Singh said that the agriculture and farm production has been
revolutionised in India under the current government which is evident
from the various initiatives taken by the government for the welfare of
farmers like the Soil Health Card, Neem Coated Urea, PM Fasal Bima
Yojana, PM Kissan Sammaan, e-Nam,PM Kissan Maandhan Yojana has not only
empowered the Agriculture Sector financially & resourcefully but has
also given an esteem and respect to the farmers which was lacking
earlier.
Enumerating
the development initiatives taken in J&K vis-à-vis agriculture
& innovation, Singh said the establishment of north India’s
first biotechnology park, two high seed processing plants at Kathua,
launch of India’s first Aroma Mission will open new vistas of growth,
opportunities and innovation in agriculture in Jammu.
Speaking
to the farmers present on the occasion, Dr. Jitendra Singh emphasized
that a farmer can now engage himself in multiple activities depending
upon his capacity, resources so as to become integrated as the working
in silos is over now. Singh maintained that the responsibility of
the government is then to facilitate the farmer in every way which is
being done without any compromise by the present government.
Giving
examples of the entrepreneurs involved in various innovative
agricultural practices & who are earning in lakhs, Singh
stressed upon the students present there to become job providers and not
job seekers, become agricultural technocrats through start-ups & be
the architects of innovative India as the agriculture in India is no
longer the traditional farming of 19th Century.
Jitendra Singh also urged SKUAST administration to promote 75
agricultural Startups from this university on 75 years of India’s
independence on the lines of his Ministry which is also promoting
start-ups as 75 young start-ups in science, 75 women start-ups in
science, 75 SIT hubs dedicated to SCs and STs.
The
Minister stressed on the integration of Institute of High Altitude
Medicine, IIIM and SKUAST which should work on theme based projects not
institution based projects for the composite outcomes and no
overlapping.
The
Minister also said that the student exchange programs should be
encouraged as India is enriched with the best scientific and
technological institutes like the national institute of plant genome
research (NIPGR) and SKUAST students in this field can visit these
institutions for better exposure and research intuition due to best
technology available there.