‘Working out modalities for motivating farmers towards crop diversification’

Union Agriculture Minister said that the government was encouraging crop diversification to enable farmers earn more revenue and minimise losses

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said the Union government in association with State governments was working out modalities for motivating farmers towards crop diversification.

There were different situations and challenges in different States. More importantly, it was not easy to convince the farmers and bring about a change in their practices. However, lot of deliberations were being done with State governments towards promoting crop diversification, he said.

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Speaking to media persons here on Thursday, the Union Agriculture Minister said that the government was encouraging crop diversification to enable farmers earn more revenue and minimise losses. Many initiatives have been implemented in states like Punjab and Haryana, he said.

Stating that India was ready to work with the G20 countries to find solutions for the challenges being faced in different sectors of agriculture, the Union Agriculture Minister said the government was also encouraging organic farming and spent Rs 1,500 crore so far towards this initiative.

He also said India was developing climate resilient seeds to mitigate crop losses due to climate change. Such initiatives would be useful to other countries facing similar climate change related issues, he stressed.

The G20 meetings have been receiving overwhelming responses from foreign delegates and international organisations. The inaugural Session will be held on Friday, followed by Ministerial meetings. On the agenda issues related to food security, nutrition, digital technologies, agri business, climate change, sustainable agriculture etc for discussion.

On the concluding day i.e June 17, the G20 Agriculture Ministers would come out with a declaration and further road map for agriculture sector, he added.