Indian farmers to get access to new technologies

Friday, 09 January 2004, 20:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
NEW DELHI: Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh Thursday stressed the need to ensure small and marginal farmers benefit from new technologies being developed in agriculture. Inaugurating the first meeting of the task force on agriculture extension here, Singh said the private sector, NGOs and cooperatives could play a meaningful role in taking new technologies to farmers. Simultaneously, "steps also need to be taken to make agri-clinics more farmer-friendly," he said. Task force chairman Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, the minister of state for agriculture, said the team would try to submit its report by March 31 since "new technologies need to be taken to farmers without much time lag". The task force was constituted last month to ensure synergy among three wings of the agriculture ministry - the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, the Department of Agricultural Research and Education and the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. Comprising agriculture ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Meghalaya, the task force will consider ongoing and proposed programmes of the three departments in the context of the national agriculture policy.
Source: IANS