Bihar CM Nitish Kumar calls for all round development of agriculture

Team Udayavani, Jun 17, 2017, 9:03 AM IST

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar emphasised the need for all round development of agriculture and its allied sector to increase the income of farmers.

“The main objective behind formulating agriculture road map is to increase the income of farmers,” Mr Kumar said while addressing a gathering of farmers in Patna.

The state government has organised a ‘Kisan Samagam’ at Samrat Ashok Convention Centre (Gyan Bhawan) to seek suggestions from farmers gathered from across the state on the occasion.

The government, which has prepared a draft proposal of Agriculture Roadmap for 2017-22, would incorporate the suggestions in the roadmap before finalising it.

Stating that 89 per cent people of Bihar live in rural areas, Mr Kumar said that “76 per cent people are dependent on agriculture sector to eke out their livelihood in the state. In this backdrop, there is a need for development of agriculture sector and its income.”

Mr Kumar, in his last ‘Lok Samvad’ programme held on Monday last, had said that several parts of the country was facing agrarian crisis which can’t be dealt alone by loan waiver scheme, rather NDA government should fulfil its poll promise and give production cost plus 50 per cent as minimum support price (MSP) to farmers.

“Major parts of the country are facing agrarian crisis today… It is ironical that both production and productivity of farm sector have increased, but farmers are in distress as they are not getting fair price of their produce as their input cost is increasing. This is the real problem,” Mr Kumar had said.

“The Centre should consider announcing production cost plus 50 per cent as MSP in order to resolve the agrarian crisis,” he said.

In his address at the Samagam, Mr Kumar said Bihar’s villages, at present, do not face any starvation situation rather people here have sufficient income to run their families.

“But it was witnessed that people, who consume liquor, are wasting their money on liquor consumption and hence the state government implemented total prohibition in the state that saved Rs. 10,000 crore being spent on liquor,” the chief minister said.