National meet on doubling farmers’ income opens on Monday bl-premium-article-image

Our Bureau Updated - February 16, 2018 at 10:43 PM.

The government may increase the agriculture credit further from the record level of ₹10 lakh crore set for 2017-18.

The government, which has very little to show so far as achievement on its ambitious plan of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, is organising a two-day brainstorming meet of various stake-holders, including farmers and farmer bodies.

The national conference, scheduled from Monday, would be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apart from his cabinet colleagues and top government officials.

According to SK Pattanayak, Union Agriculture Secretary, the primary objective of the meeting is to prepare a farmer-centric roadmap for meeting the doubling farmers’ income objectives.

Seven themes

The meeting, also to be attended by economists, scientists and trade and finance industry representatives, would deliberate on seven chosen themes including trade policy, agri-logistics, farm inputs and agriculture credit and suggest changes required in existing policy measures.

“The main aim of the conference is to build consensus around appropriate recommendation that will help in shaping and sharpening the vision of the government on doubling farmers’ income 2022 into actionable points,” Pattanayak said.

He said the government hopes that many short-, medium- and long-term measures could be formulated on the basis of the recommendations emerging from the meeting.

Published on February 16, 2018 15:58