Centre stands shoulder to shoulder with J&K farmers: Narendra Singh Tomar

“I am happy that farmers of J&K are moving forward and taking benefits of government schemes,” Tomar told reporters here during a press conference.

“Center stands shoulder to shoulder with the farmers of J&K,” he said while referring to the government’s implementation of the agriculture infrastructure scheme.

“I feel happy that till now we have received proposals worth Rs 10,000 crore from states and about Rs 5,000 crore worth of proposals have been accepted by  banks and work is in progress on them,” he added.

Tomar is on a two-day visit to Kashmir as part of the Centre's special public outreach programme. Nearly, 70 ministers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's  Council of Ministers are on a visit to Jammu and Kashmir.

Under the PM-Kisan yojana, he said, the centre ensured that every farmer gets Rs 6,000 per year.

“So far over 11 crore farmers have received 1.58 lakh crore in their accounts,” he added.

The Union Minister said that small farmers, having less than two hectares of farmland, comprise 85 per cent of the total farmers in the country.

“Our farmer is hardworking. Governments (at the centre and in states) have also made attempts which have resulted in our country becoming a surplus in food grain production,” he said.

“On a global scale, we are number one or two in terms of  agriculture production.”

Tomar said that the government was setting up 10,000 farmer producer organisations (FPO) and will spend Rs 6,850 crore on them.

These FPOs will change the status of lives of small farmers, decrease their costs and increase their power of bargaining, he said.