Second leg of GRAM has added to the ammunition of farmers. Avanindra Mishra digs deep to find out the attempts that are being made to incubate and resurrect the agricultural ‘way of life’
The second divisional session of Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet (GRAM) concluded in Udaipur on Thursday. Over the past three days the GRAM venue was reduced into a global village with people from over 125 countries participating in the event. Spread over 8,500 square metres of area, gram pavilion had separate divisions for ‘everything farming’ like display of innovations, smart farm techniques and discussions on issues related to modern farming. Jointly organised by Government of Rajasthan and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries, the meet also attracted many local investors and farm based machinery companies.
Chief minister Vasundhara Raje had provisioned for three-divisional level gram events during the recent budget. These events have been inspired from the success of GRAM 2016 held at the state capital Jaipur. The first of these was held at Kota earlier this year and the last is scheduled in Jodhpur in January 2018. These events are designed as a step in direction of realising prime minister Narendra Modi’s vision to double farmers income by 2022. At GRAM the concept is to raise farmer income by adaptation of innovations and technological advancements at farms.
Even as the GRAM Udaipur registered participation of local investors and memorandum of understanding (MoUs) for 18 projects worth Rs487 crores were signed during the event, a need for further requirement of infrastructure support was also felt. In the concluding session, MLA from Rajsamand constituency of Udaipur and cabinet minister at state government, Kiran Maheshwari also insisted for the same.
“Udaipur has excelled in rose production, extraction of rose oil can help them draw higher returns as it sells for high price and has huge demand overseas,” said Kiran Maheshwari. “The technique is, however, expensive and thus many farmers cannot adopt it. Solutions must be sought to provision for the industry to develop in the area,” she added.
Trickle down effect
Increasing farm income will have a direct impact on financial and social empowerment of large number of rural women working at farms. Thousands of these women farmers also visited the Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet (GRAM) to learn about modern techniques, specialised farming and support extended by state government.
‘Missing our horses’
Three horses at Udaipur division were recently diagnosed with Glanders disease. Thus the beloved animal was prohibited entry at the GRAM and instead real size cut-outs of horses were seen erected at a stall in the section of animal husbandry. At the stall was also a banner that read out “We are missing our horses”.
Go colloquial
A contrast between policy makers and beneficiaries became evident during an open discussion between farmers and government officers held at GRAM. Also present during the discussion, agriculture minister of Rajasthan Prabhu Lal Saini asked the officials to address the farmer gathering in local dialect and terms easy to understand by farmers.
An ATM for seeds
An automatic transaction machine for seeds of variety of produces was also on display at the exhibition pavilion. The machine installed at stall of National Seeds Corporation limited had on its dispense list new and quality seeds of onion, cauliflower, carrots, corn etc. Interested farmers could get the seeds with minimal price of Rs 10 and accordingly.
Govt goes agro on agri
Rs 55,000 cr of interest free farm loan distributed in 3.5 years.
Rs 20,000 cr of interest free loan estimated to be distributed in next 1.5 years
Rs 6 Lakh insurance cover on farm loan to be soon increased to Rs10 lakh
Rs 20 L incentive for farmers aspiring to become entrepreneur.
Rs 100 cr dedicated fund for milk producers.
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