PM Modi addressed farmers during the National Summit on Agriculture and Food Processing in Anand, Gujarat today. While addressing the ‘Conclave on Natural Farming’ conference through video conferencing, PM Modi said that this conclave is definitely happening in Gujarat but its scope, its effect is for the whole of India. For every farmer of India.
Big things of PM Modi’s address
- Today is a very important day for the agriculture sector, farming. I had urged the farmer brothers across the country to definitely join the National Convention on Natural Farming. Today, about 8 crore farmers are connected with us through technology from every corner of the country.
- We all have seen very closely the way in which agriculture took place in the country in the decades after independence, in which direction it grew. Now our journey till the 100th year of independence is to adapt our agriculture according to new requirements, new challenges.
- From seed to market, several steps have been taken one after the other to increase the income of the farmer. From soil testing to hundreds of new seeds, from PM Kisan Samman Nidhi to one and a half times MSP of cost, from strong network of irrigation to Kisan Rail, many steps have been taken.
- Along with agriculture, farmers are constantly being connected with many alternative sources of income like animal husbandry, bee keeping, fisheries and solar energy, bio fuel. A provision of lakhs of crores has been made to give emphasis to storage, cold chain and food processing in villages.
- We have to import large quantities of pesticides and chemical fertilizers used in agriculture. Because of this, the cost of farming increases, the expenditure increases and the kitchen of the poor is also expensive.
- It is true that chemicals and fertilizers have played an important role in the Green Revolution. But it is equally true that we have to keep working on its alternatives simultaneously. We have to take our agriculture out of the lab of chemistry and connect it to the lab of nature. Nature’s laboratory is completely science based.
- From seed to soil, you can treat everything in a natural way. Natural farming does not involve spending on fertilizers or pesticides. It also requires less irrigation and is capable of dealing with floods and droughts.
- Today the more modern the world is becoming, the more it is moving towards ‘back to basic’. What is the meaning of this back to basic? It means connecting with your roots! Who understands this better than all of you farmer friends? The more we water the roots, the more the plant grows.
- We not only need to re-learn our ancient knowledge related to agriculture, but also need to sharpen it according to modern times. In this direction, we will have to do research afresh, putting the ancient knowledge in the modern scientific frame.
