National Conference on Kharif Crops, 2020 held through video conference

On April 16, 2020 the Union Agricultural Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar chaired the National Conference on Kharif crops. The conference discussed measures to achieve doubling of farmers’ income and to achieve Kharif target.

Secretaries of DAC&FW and ICAR and also officers from state governments participated in the conference.

Highlights

The conference fixed the target of food grains for the year 2020-21 at 298 million tonnes. The target was 291 million tonnes for the year 2019-20.

Initiatives discussed

The new initiatives to combat COVID-19 were also discussed in the conference. It included

• Intensification of “Per drop more crop”. This is being done under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana
• PM-AASHA scheme. Under the scheme the Minimum Support Price (MSP) is to be fixed at a level at least 2 times the cost of production.
• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, Rs 16,621 was disbursed to help farmers.
• New operational guidelines were framed for the E-Nam initiative to reduce the crowd at mandis and also help farmers in selling their produce.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2020