Lucknow: A light moment was seen in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s virtual interaction with farmers, when a farmer, an FPO member in Lucknow, visited him to present the bananas grown in his fields. Asked for time Pointing to the agricultural produce placed on the table during the conversation, Modi asked, “You have kept so many products here, are they all grown by small farmers?” Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) member Dharamchand said that all things are the produce of small farmers’ fields.
The Prime Minister said that the size of a banana seems too big. To this Dharamchand said, “Hey sir, this is my branded banana, ‘Naveen Kela’. Give us a chance, if you invite us, then we will bring you, you eat, see how much fun it is.” Others including the Prime Minister could not stop laughing at this. “Grateful for your views,” Modi said.
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Modi then said, “The confidence that the small farmers of my country have and the confidence with which you are telling everyone, the farmers across the country are listening to you, everyone will get inspiration and enthusiasm. You have given strength to the hard work of the farmers, I am sure that this FPO of yours will flourish and flourish. More FAPOs will be formed in your neighbourhood, and my partner like you is a big force in my goal of increasing small farmers through FPOs. I salute you and all the farmers associated with you.”
Earlier, farmer Dharamchand said, “We provide high yielding varieties of seeds to the farmers. We also encourage them to do organic farming and also do floriculture.” When asked about the flower market by the Prime Minister, he said, “Sold in the local ‘Phool Mandi’ (flower market).” Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday released the 10th installment of Rs 20,900 crore to 10.09 crore farmers under the PM-Kisan scheme. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme, financial assistance of Rs 6,000 is provided to the eligible farmers in a year.
In the virtual event, Modi also released equity grant of over Rs 14 crore to 351 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). This will benefit 1.24 lakh farmers. Chief ministers of nine states, ministers of various states and representatives of agricultural institutions also participated in this program in a virtual way. On this occasion, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that an amount of Rs 20,900 crore has been transferred to the accounts of 10.09 crore beneficiaries on the first day of the new year (2022).
He said that the PM-Kisan program has been launched to help the government in its efforts to double the income of farmers. Earlier the ninth installment of PM-Kisan was released in August, 2021. After the release today, so far 1.8 lakh crore rupees have been given to the farmers under this scheme.
The PM-Kisan scheme was announced in the budget of February, 2019. Under this, the first installment was released for the period from December, 2018 to March, 2019. (agency)