Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Rural Development Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a virtual review meeting of various schemes of the Ministry with the Agriculture Ministers of the States/UTs in New Delhi today. Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Dr. Devesh Chaturvedi and other senior officials of the Ministry were present in the meeting. While reviewing the various works of the Ministry, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that in the new year with new resolutions, we will take forward the work of agricultural development and farmer welfare at a fast pace. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had said from the Red Fort that I will work with three times the strength in the third term, we should also resolve that we will work with our full potential. Shri Chouhan said that it is a matter of happiness that this year the growth rate of agriculture sector and allied sector is likely to be between 3.5 percent to 4 percent. For this, I congratulate our farmers and Ministers of all the states because these results come only due to the hard work of all of you. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, we have a 6-point strategy for farmer welfare and development in the agriculture sector. He said that first of all increasing production – how to increase production per hectare or per acre is the strategy of the government, for that ICAR continuously researches and releases improved varieties of seeds. We are working in many directions like micro irrigation scheme, mechanization, use of technology, new agricultural methods etc. How to reduce the cost of production along with increasing production? We are working on reducing the cost of production to increase income rapidly etc. Union Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has started PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. I am happy to tell that till now an amount of Rs 3.46 lakh crore (3 lakh 46 thousand crores) has been distributed to 11 crore farmers in 18 installments.More than 25 lakh eligible farmers were added in the first 100 days of Modi ji’s third term. The number of people taking benefit of the 18th installment increased to 9.58 crore (9 crore 58 lakh).

Union Minister said that PM Crop Insurance Scheme is the world’s largest crop insurance scheme. In this, loanee applications are 876 lakh and non-loanee applications are 552 lakh. A total of 14.28 crore (14 crore 28 lakh) farmers have applied, 602 lakh hectare area is insured and the gross insured amount is Rs 2,73,049 crore (2 lakh 73 thousand 049 crore rupees). 4 crore farmers have benefited from the scheme. Since the inception of the scheme, Rs 17 thousand crore has been given to the farmer brothers in the form of claim.