Hyderabad, June 15 (Agency) Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday said that his government would spend Rs 1500 crores in the next 5 years for the promotion of organic and natural farming in the country. The government is thinking on how to market link of these organic products instead of MSP, Tomar said in a press conference on the sidelines of the 3-day G20 Agriculture Ministers’ meeting which began here on Thursday.
The government is encouraging crop diversification in order to enable the farmers to get more revenue and minimise losses, he said that discussions with several governments including the Telangana government is going on in this regard. We have already initiated this crop diversification scheme in Punjab and Haryana state, Tomar informed. He hoped that farmers across the country would also adopt the changes in the coming years. Tomar said India is developing climate-resilient seeds so as to mitigate crop losses due to climate change. He said such initiatives will be useful to other countries facing similar climate change-related issues. India is ready to work with the G20 countries to find solutions to the challenges being faced in different sectors of agriculture, he said and exuded hope that India would find solutions to these challenges through deliberations at the G20 meeting.
G20 meetings have been receiving overwhelming responses from foreign delegates and international organisations. The inaugural Session will be held on Friday which will be followed by Ministerial meetings. On the agenda issues related to food security, nutrition, digital technologies, agribusiness, climate change, sustainable agriculture etc for discussion, the Union Minister said. Tomar said that on a concluding day on Saturday, the G20 agriculture ministers will come out will a declaration and further road map on the agriculture sector.