Keen to woo farmers ahead of the crucial electoral battles this year and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led government on Wednesday approved an extension by two more years of a scheme that aims to double farmers' income by 2022.
It aims to bring under one umbrella 11 agricultural schemes, besides their effective monitoring.
There has been widespread concern about unremunerative prices to farmers for farm produce and inadequate access to loans and insurance.
Farmers have agitated in different parts of the country, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, on the issues in the past.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's performance in the rural areas of Gujarat compared with urban centres in the Assembly polls last year was less than expected and the party has been seeking to increase its rural outreach.
Apart from Karnataka's May 12 elections, Assembly elections remain to be held in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh during the year.
The scheme, launched last year, will get a central share of Rs 33,279 crore for three fiscals -- 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
"In order to fulfil the promise of doubling farmers' income, our government has taken the decision to club 11 schemes into one umbrella scheme. It is a historic decision," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media here.
These schemes aim to develop the agriculture and allied sectors in a holistic and scientific manner to increase the income of farmers by enhancing production, productivity and better returns on produce, according to an official release.
These schemes are the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, National Food Security Mission, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation and Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Marketing.
The other schemes are Sub mission on Agriculture Extension, Sub Mission on Seeds and Planting Material, Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plant Quarantine, Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Census, Economics and Statistics, Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Cooperation, and National e-Governance Plan.
The schemes are aimed at creating and strengthening infrastructure for production, reducing production cost, as well as marketing of agricultural and allied products.
--IANS
spk/ps/tsb/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)