Against the backdrop of the ongoing farmers’ agitation on Delhi’s borders, the Uttar Pradesh government will launch a massive farmers’ outreach programme — Kisan Kalyan Mission — from January 6.
The three-week agenda, part of the broader theme of doubling the rural income, will cover all the 400-plus assembly constituencies across the 75 districts of the state.
There are an estimated 2.3 crore farmers’ households in UP, out of which more than 2.1 crore, or 90 percent, are small and marginal farmers with fragmented land holdings who subsist on low farm income.
The average size of land holdings in UP is only 0.73 hectare compared to 3.62 hectares in Punjab. The preponderance of marginal and small farmers results in smaller marketable surplus of agro commodities in UP and therefore such farmers find it more convenient to sell outside mandis under the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials to prepare the blueprint of organising block level farmers’ meets, seminars, exhibitions and fairs, and integrating the farming community with the Central and state government agricultural and allied sector schemes.
The state will collaborate with progressive farmers, scientists and farming experts to propagate modern and scientific farming methods for cutting down farm input costs for higher yield and profitability.
At various forums, Yogi Adityanath has been stressing that the new Central farm laws are aimed at doubling the farm income and providing an additional marketing avenue to farmers to sell their agro produce apart from the government notified mandis.
He has claimed that vested interests are trying to mislead the farmers on the issue of the new farm laws.
The CM has also issued directives for speedy procurement of paddy and prompt payment to the farmers in the ongoing kharif marketing season.
The state is targeting procurement of 5.5 million ton (MT) of paddy, while 4.7 MT of paddy has already been purchased by the government agencies with nearly two months still left in the kharif procurement cycle.
Meanwhile, the CM has asked officials to expedite the preparation of the state data centre policy while stressing that a conducive investment climate has been facilitated in UP.
