Hyderabad, Sept 18: Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday called upon southern states to complete their agriculture-related commitments within fixed deadlines, stressing that regional conferences must result in measurable action on the ground.
Addressing the concluding session of a regional agriculture conference in Hyderabad, Chouhan said the Centre and states should work as a single “agriculture team”, with farmers, scientists and government officials working together to address challenges in the sector.He said commitments made during the conference should be followed by concrete action.
Merely holding meetings without implementing the decisions would defeat the purpose of such exercises, he said.The minister particularly emphasised the need to accelerate work on AgriStack and Farmer IDs.
He said Telangana and Karnataka had crossed the 75 per cent mark in Farmer ID creation, while Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands needed to make greater progress.
Chouhan said Farmer IDs would become important for several future systems and services in agriculture and therefore states should complete the process within the timelines they have set.
He also called for faster integration of land parcels with the Farmer Registry and better coordination of land-record data. States were asked to address pending work related to land records, georeferencing and registration of tenant farmers.
According to the minister, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands need to work on standard procedures for tenant farmers.
Puducherry and Lakshadweep were also asked to complete the georeferencing of village maps.The minister highlighted the proposed expansion of the Bharat Vistaar platform, which is aimed at helping farmers obtain agricultural advice through digital means.
He said the service, currently available in Hindi and English, is planned to be extended to 13 regional languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.Chouhan said farmers should be able to raise queries in their own languages and receive relevant advice accordingly. He also urged states to integrate their agricultural schemes with the platform.
Emphasising the need to connect agricultural research with field-level requirements, Chouhan said scientists from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and agricultural universities should interact directly with farmers.He said states could organise short-duration field campaigns during which government scientists would visit villages and farms, interact with farmers and work with agriculture department officials to identify practical solutions.
The minister said India has thousands of agricultural scientists and research institutions, and their work should ultimately benefit farmers. He stressed that innovations developed in laboratories must reach the fields to produce meaningful results.Chouhan also outlined the government’s broader ambition of strengthening India’s position in global agriculture and making the country a major food supplier.
He said achieving this goal would require coordinated efforts by the Centre, states, scientists and farmers.The minister further announced that a Rabi agriculture conference would be held in New Delhi on September 28 and 29.
Agriculture ministers and officials from the states are expected to participate with their crop-specific plans for the upcoming Rabi season.The conference will focus on finalising crop-wise sowing plans and assessing requirements for seeds, fertilisers and other agricultural inputs.
The regional conference was aimed at reviewing agricultural priorities and implementation-related issues in southern states. However, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were among the major states whose agriculture ministers did not participate in the meeting.
