Modi govt to set up National Institute for Organic Farming

Varanasi: Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh announced that that a National Institute for Organic Farming will be started in the country very soon.
He asked people to wait for three years to see results of corrective measures initiated by Modi government. Terming Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi as `Nautanki karne waley’ (drama artist) he questioned relevance of Krishi Bima Yojana during Congress led UPA government.He also attacked Akhilesh Yadav government in UP on the issues of distributing compensations among farmers.
While addressing the inaugural session of the Swadeshi Mela of Swadeshi Jagran Manch at cultural complex here on Saturday the minister said that the country has over 100 agriculture universities and institutes working in specialized fields. He said, keeping the deteriorated quality of soil due to imbalanced used of chemical fertilizers the Modi government is focusing on reviving the fertility of soil since its formation. The decision of starting a new national institute for organic farming is the part of same action plan, he said adding, all other agriculture universities and institutes would also be roped in to encourage organic farming.
Singh called upon the farmers to increase pressure on the state governments concerned to get their soil tested and get the soil health card. He said, “As per the announcement of Modi government to test the soil of 14 crore farmers and provide their soil health cards about five crore farmers will get their cards by March end. As this programme is being run through state governments the farmers of UP should ask Akhilesh government in case they are not getting their soil health cards.”
Targeting Congress led UPA government he claimed, “Between 2011 and 2014 during UPA regime the states got only Rs 1200 crores to meet the challenges occurred due to natural disaster while only in 2014-15 financial year Modi government released Rs 900 crores to the states in this head. During 2009-10 drought in UP the UPA government had given Rs 575 crores to the state while this state got Rs 2800 crores in 2014-15. And to distribute compensation among farmers against agricultural losses due to natural calamity in the beginning of 2015-16 center gave Rs 1600 crores to UP.” He asked farmers of UP to seek reply from Akhilesh government why such money had not been distributed among them so far. He also taunted Congress vice president to see how the works for the benefits of farmers are being done by Modi government.
Highlighting features of Krishi Bima Yojana announced by Modi government Singh said that the agriculture insurance scheme of UPA government was not more than a cruel joke for the farmers. To check the menace of brokers and food grain stockiest in order to ensure that farmers are getting proper value of their produce he said, the process of linking 585 food grain depots of country with e-connectivity will complete by March 2018.