New Delhi, Oct 11 — Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched two major agriculture schemes with a combined outlay of Rs 35,440 crore, including a pulses mission aimed at reducing India’s import dependency, officials said. The announcement coincided with the birth anniversary of socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan.
The ‘Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses’, with an allocation of Rs 11,440 crore, seeks to raise pulses production from 252.38 lakh tonnes to 350 lakh tonnes by 2030-31. The Rs 24,000-crore ‘Pradhan Mantri Dhan Dhaanya Krishi Yojana’ targets 100 low-performing agricultural districts, focusing on productivity, crop diversification, irrigation, storage, and credit access. Both schemes will be implemented from the upcoming rabi season until 2030-31.
During the event, Modi also inaugurated projects worth over Rs 5,450 crore across agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, and food processing sectors, and laid the foundation stone for additional projects valued at around Rs 815 crore. Notable projects include artificial insemination training centres in Bengaluru and J&K, centres of excellence at Amreli and Banas, an IVF lab in Assam, milk powder plants in Mehsana, Indore, and Bhilwara, and a fish feed plant at Tezpur under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana.
Certificates were distributed to farmers certified under the National Mission for Natural Farming, MAITRI technicians, and Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies (PACS) converted to Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samriddhi Kendras (PMKSKs) and Common Service Centres (CSCs).
The programme highlighted government achievements including 50 lakh farmer memberships in 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), with 1,100 FPOs recording annual turnover above Rs 1 crore in 2024-25; certification of 50,000 farmers under the National Mission for Natural Farming; 38,000 certified MAITRI technicians; and the operationalisation of over 10,000 multipurpose and e-PACS.
Modi interacted with pulses farmers benefiting from government schemes promoting a value-chain-based approach in agriculture, animal husbandry, and fisheries. Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, and Minister of State for Agriculture Bhagirath Choudhary were present.
(Agencies)
