New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday February 24 said natural farming can be increased to tap the organic market and also suggested that it is necessary to spread awareness and popularise Indian millets.
“We are encouraging organic farming, because of which the market for organic products has reached Rs 11,000 crore. Organic exports have risen to more than Rs 7,000 crore from Rs 2,000 crore rupees six years ago,” Modi said while addressing a webinar on the positive impact of Union Budget 2022 in the Agriculture sector.
“More and more people are adopting environment-friendly lifestyles because of which demand for organic products has increased and India should tap into the ever-increasing market by encouraging natural farming,” he said.
Amongst the seven pointers from the budget that he highlighted, the first was natural farming along the Ganga up to five km on both banks.
Modi also emphasised how Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) will need to power on to take natural farming to every single person and suggested KVKs can adopt one village each while the agriculture universities can aim for facilitating 500-1000 farmers towards natural farming.
Reminding that the year 2023 is the ‘International Year of Millets’, the Prime Minister urged the Corporate world to come forward to take the Indian brand of millets to the world. “These coarse grains need to be pushed forward, we need to spread awareness about them and popularise,” Modi said, and suggested that bigger Indian Missions in other countries can organise seminars wherein the importers there can be told about the quality and variety of India’s millets.
He also pointed out how several foreign food products are making way to dining tables across India.
“They are not even palatable to Indian taste. Our farmers are growing all of these and much more. It is our failure that we are not able to market them properly. Here too ‘vocal for local’ is necessary. Our farmers produce everything, and they are to our taste. We need to spread awareness about their products and popularise them,” the Prime Minister said and asserted that the Corona pandemic times have established the importance of India’s spices.
Just like grains, Modi also said natural fruit juices have multiple options in India and that instead of aping the foreign countries, India needs to promote Indian natural fruit juices.
