New Delhi, Oct 11: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday unveiled two major schemes for the agriculture sector with a combined outlay of Rs 35,440 crore, including a dedicated pulses mission aimed at reducing India’s import dependency. The launch coincided with the birth anniversary of socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan.
At 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.
The ‘Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses’, with an outlay of Rs 11,440 crore, seeks to increase pulses production from the current 252.38 lakh tonnes to 350 lakh tonnes by the 2030-31 crop year, significantly reducing import reliance.
The Rs 24,000-crore ‘Pradhan Mantri Dhan Dhaanya Krishi Yojana’ aims to transform 100 low-performing agricultural districts. The scheme focuses on improving crop productivity, promoting diversification, enhancing irrigation and storage, and facilitating credit access. Both schemes, already approved by the Cabinet, will be implemented from the upcoming rabi season until 2030-31.
Projects inaugurated include artificial insemination training centres in Bengaluru and Jammu & Kashmir, Centres of Excellence at Amreli and Banas, an IVF lab in Assam under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission, milk powder plants at Mehsana, Indore, and Bhilwara, and a fish feed plant under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana in Tezpur.
During the programme, Modi distributed certificates 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 event highlighted several milestones under government initiatives, including:
50 lakh farmer memberships across 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), with 1,100 FPOs recording an annual turnover of over Rs 1 crore in 2024-25.
Certification of 50,000 farmers under the National Mission for Natural Farming.
Certification of 38,000 MAITRIs (Multi-Purpose AI Technicians in Rural India).
Sanction and operationalisation of over 10,000 multipurpose and e-PACS.
Strengthening of PACS, dairy, and fishery cooperative societies.
Modi also interacted with farmers engaged in pulses cultivation, discussing the benefits of value chain-based approaches 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 attended the event.