PM failed to keep election promise: Pocharam

Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy today expressed displeasure at the Centre for not implementing recommendations of Swaminathan Committee on farm productivity and remunerative prices and funds for micro irrigation.

Speaking at a program here on the farm sector, Pocharam said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not keeping election promise on the issue. He demanded that the Centre increase allocation of funds for micro irrigation to boost agrarian economy and help improve the lot of farmers. He stressed on the need for increase in agriculture productivity to get better benefits to farmers.

The minister also said farmers should flourish with benefits for their produce but they are not getting better prices. This year the agriculture produce is expected to be around 272 million tons. Farm yield in India is only 3.7 tons per hectare, which was very low compared to China and Japan, he said. Srinivas Reddy exhorted the Krishi Vignan Kendras and Agriculture varsities to put in efforts for more farm yield to witness a significant increase in productivity. (NSS)