Shivraj Chouhan announces Rs 18,000 crore for horticulture clusters, says will talk to agri ministers

Replying to a discussion on work in his ministry in the Rajya Sabha, Chouhan said farmers should not be treated as a vote bank but humans and targeted Congress saying that while they talk of direct benefits, they have never come up with a scheme like PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) for assistance to farmers.

“They (opposition) will not understand but the amount of `6,000 matters to small farmers. Due to this Kisan Samman Nidhi, farmers have become self-reliant, farmers have also become empowered and the respect of farmers has also increased. They (opposition) cannot see the respect of farmers,” he said and cited incidents of firing on farmers by Congress governments in states.

Congress leaders, including Digvijay Singh, who comes from the same state and was CM for 10 years, wanted to raise issues like demand for a legal guarantee on MSP and also alleged inaccuracies in the minister’s statement. They also accused Chouhan of firing on farmers during his tenure as chief minister of MP. But, Singh and others were not allowed to speak following which the Congress walked out.

During his speech, he said that amendments will be made in pesticide management legislation while over 1,500 more mandies will be integrated with the e-NAM platform.

Speaking on the schemes that the government was working on to help farmers and make India a food basket of the world by 2047, he said that farmers will receive a digital identity — similar to Aadhaar — under the Digital Agriculture Mission. It will be linked to land records, crop details through videography, and damage assessment done through remote sensing, which will prevent any manipulation of records.

The minister said that the government has a vision of developing 1,500 new varieties of climate resilient crops, which can for instance withstand higher temperatures. The government was also working to diversify crops, including farming of flowers, fruits, and medicinal plants and the focus is on developing climate-resilient villages, expanding micro-irrigation, and restoring traditional crop varieties. He said there will be focus on organic farming, where farmers can utilise not all of their land, but part of it to do so.

Later, at a media briefing, AICC general secretary Randeep Surjewala said the entire opposition, under the leadership of CPP chief Sonia Gandhi, boycotted Chouhan’s remarks and walked out as the Modi government’s policies and actions are “anti-farmer”. “Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s lie was caught red handed because the Modi government gave an affidavit in the Supreme Court on February 6, 2015, saying that cost + 50% cannot be given to the farmers of the country because this will spoil the market,” he said.
Chouhan admitted on the floor of the House that the government buys crops at MSP only whenever the need arises which means that the government accepted it does not buy the crops at MSP because it does not consider it necessary, he said.

Surjewala said a case of ‘breach of privilege’ will also be raised against Chouhan on the charge of “misleading” the House and the country.

Congress MP Digvijaya Singh alleged that Chouhan has a “habit of lying”. “Under the leadership of Kamal Nath ji, the Congress government of Madhya Pradesh had waived the loans of about 37 lakh farmers. Former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan had also given a statement that farmers’ loans had been waived off during the Congress regime,” he said.
With PTI inputs