What is the issue?

• New India is a grand and ambitious vision of Government of India which seeks to transform the country into a prosperous, healthy, educated and a clean and green nation.
• But to attain these goals Agriculture sector must be promoted as it provides 55 percent of workforce and yields 14 percent to national GDP.

What are the strategic moves of the government?

• The seven point strategy plan is unveiled for the first time with a target to double theFarmers' income by 2022. The seven point strategy plan covers areas like Increase in production, Effective use of input cost, Reduction of post-harvest losses, Value Addition, Reforms in Agriculture Marketing, Risk, Security and Assistance and Allied Activities.
• The PMKSY was launched to achieve convergence of investments in irrigation at the field level, expand cultivable area under assured irrigation (Har Khet ko pani), improve on-farm water use efficiency to reduce wastage of water, enhance the adoption of precision-irrigation and other water saving technologies (More crop per drop), enhance recharge of aquifers and introduce sustainable water conservation practices by exploring the feasibility of reusing treated municipal based water for peri-urban agriculture and attract greater private investment in precision irrigation system.
• The Soil Health card scheme is tailor-made scheme to issue soil card to farmers which will carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for the individual farms. This is aimed to help farmers to improve productivity through judicious use of inputs.
• Groups of farmers would be motivated to take up organic farming under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY). Fifty or more farmers will form a cluster having 50 acre land to take up the organic farming under the scheme. It will be promoted by using traditional resources and the organic products will be linked with the market.
• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was launched from Kharif 2016 to provide comprehensive insurance coverage for all food crops (cereals, millets & pulses), oilseeds crops and annual commercial/horticultural crops against all non-preventable natural risks.
• Integration of agri-markets across the country through the e-platform (e-NAM) is seen as an important measure for overcoming the challenges posed by the present agri-marketing system namely - fragmentation of State into multiple market areas, each administered by separate APMC, multiple levy of mandi fees, requirement for multiple license for trading in different APMCs, licensing barriers leading to conditions of monopoly, poor quality of infrastructure and low use of technology, information asymmetry, opaque process for price discovery, high level of market charges, movement controls, etc.
• Government of India has launched a campaign named as India emergence through village emergence so as to improve the means of livelihood amongst the rural, to accelerate rural development process to strengthen Panchayati Raj across the country to establish social equality to create awareness about the agricultural schemes.
• Under My Village My Pride scheme, 20,000 agriculture scientists have been engaged to adopt a village which is also involved to pay awareness to adopt the ways of sophisticated scientific farming and their implementation.
• Farmer FIRST initiative was launched to move beyond the production and productivity and to privilege the complex, diverse & risk prone realities of the farmers through enhancing farmers-scientists contact with multi stakeholders participation for technology development and application.
• The ICAR has initiated a program on Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture (ARYA) in selected districts through KVKs with an objective for entrepreneurial development of Youth in Rural Areas to take up various Agriculture, allied and service sector enterprises for sustainable income and gainful employment.
• NITI Aayog, premier independent think tank prepared a Three Year Action Agenda for Doubling farmers income and recommended the following 

1. Reform the Agricultural Produce Marketing to ensure that farmers receive remunerative prices.
2. Raise productivity through enhanced irrigation, faster seed replacement and precision agriculture.
3. Shift to high value commodities: horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries.

• The apex research body of the country, The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) continuously researches in creating new and enhanced seed verities which also released more than 600 improved crop varieties so far.
• Technologies like Precision farming, integrated farming, resource conservation technologies and protected cultivation are just few examples which hold great promise and potential.
• Similarly new machineries like Laser land leveler, precision seeder and planter and modern and scientific practices like zero tillage farming, raised bed plantation and ridge plantation also promise attractive returns on investment which adds to the income of farmers.