Contribution of agriculture and allied sectors has increased 26.8% since 2013-14: Narendra Singh Tomar

The total contribution of agriculture and its allied sector has increased 26.8% – from Rs 16,09,198 crore during 2013-14 to Rs 20,40,079 crore during 2020-21 – in terms of value, said Narendra Singh Tomar, minister for Agriculture and Farmers‘ Welfare while responding to a question in Lok Sabha on the role of research in development of agriculture use sector.

“The total agricultural exports have also shown continuous rise and the total value of the export of agricultural and allied commodities during the period 2013-14 and 2020-21 was Rs 2,62,778.52 crore and Rs 3,10,338.47 crore respectively showing an increase of 18.1 percent,” he added.

The government has set up 725 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in the country to provide information to the farmers regarding new technologies in the agriculture sector. The activities of KVKs include on-farm testing to identify the location specificity of technology under various farming systems, frontline demonstration to establish the production potential of improved agricultural technologies on the farmers’ fields, capacity development of farmers for knowledge and skill up gradation, providing farm advisories using ICT and other media means on varied subjects of interest to farmers and production of quality seeds, planting materials and other technology inputs for availability to the farmers.

To address air pollution and to subsidize machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue, a Central Sector Scheme (100% funded by the Central Government) on ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue (CRM)’ has been implemented from 2018-19 in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi. Under this scheme, the number of machines delivered to the individual farmers and custom hiring centres during the last 3 years is 158135.