Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh will review the progress of two priority programmes of the government namely National Agricultural Market (e-NAM) and Soil Health Card on July 5, 2017, at Krishi Bhawan.
State Ministers of Agri-marketing of 13 states, markets of which have integrated to e-NAM, and Agriculture Ministers of some selected states will be attending the meeting along with their senior state officials.
The progressive agri-market reforms being driven by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare and NITI Aayog incorporated in the new model Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017, will also be discussed to encourage the states to adopt the suggested provisions at the earliest to bring in the benefits to the farmers, according to a PIB release.
Altogether 455 markets from 13 states have been integrated to the national web based portal of e-NAM with the registration of over 47 lakh farmers and 91,000 traders. This innovative market process is revolutionizing agri markets by ensuring better price discovery, bringing in transparency and competition to enable farmers to get improved remuneration for their produce moving towards “One Nation One Market”.
The Soil Health Card scheme is helping the farmers to know the nutrition status of their land and receiving advisory for rationalisation of inputs, thereby reducing costs and increasing returns through appropriate cropping patterns, according to he PIB release. The second cycle, which began on May 1, 2017, is building on the learnings of the first cycle to improve efficiency and make its use more acceptable by the farmers. So far 9 crore soil health cards have been distributed to farmers in the country.