Agriculture ministry to bring data policy for farm sector
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday said the government aims to create a national database of farmers and is also in the process of bringing out a data policy for the farm sector. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Tomar said, “The government aims to create a federated National Farmers Database and the digitised land records will be used as data attributes for creating this database. To bring dynamism to the farmer’s database, the linkage with digital land record management system is essential.”
As of now, he said, the federated farmers’ database is being built by taking the publicly available data as existing in the Department of Agriculture and in various data silos in government and linking them with the digitised land records.
“This Department…in consultation with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is in the process of bringing out a data policy for the agriculture sector,” Tomar said.
Rain deficit hits sowing of kharif crops
An 8% rainfall deficit in July – bang in the middle of the crucial monsoon season – has hampered sowing of key kharif crops such as pulses, cereals and oilseeds across the country, official data showed on Friday.
The lull – chiefly due to a three-week stagnant spell ending in the second week of July – came after a blistering start to the monsoon in June, which saw 10% surplus rainfall across the country.
Govt says no proposal under consideration to waive farmer loans
The government on Monday said there is no proposal under consideration to waive loans of farmers, including Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe farmers. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said the Centre has not implemented any farm loan waiver scheme since ‘Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008’.
“There is no proposal under consideration of the Government of India to waive off the loans of farmers including Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes farmers in the country,” the minister said.
Karad also listed major initiatives taken by the government and the Reserve Bank of India to reduce the debt burden of farmers and for welfare of the people engaged in agriculture, including those belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
