NEW DELHI: The government conducted nearly 1.4 lakh training and webinar sessions reaching out to nearly 93 lakh farmers in the last six months regarding the new agriculture reforms, senior government officials said on Friday in an attempt to counter the perception that extensive outreach and consultations with farmers were not done.
“There is a manufactured perception that the central government has not done extensive outreach and consultations with farmers and their representatives, in the context of the ongoing farmer protests against the new agriculture laws,” a senior government official said. He said a comprehensive awareness and outreach drive has been undertaken at multiple levels with thousands of small gatherings took place at the village level to inform a large number of farmers about the bills.
The official said that in June 2020, 708 trainings and webinars were organised covering 21,231 farmers, 873 trainings and webinars were conducted reaching out to 26,196 farmers in July followed by 852 and 840 training and webinar sessions conducted covering 25,569 and 25,205 farmers in August and September respectively. October saw 36,102 training and webinar sessions covering over 27 lakh farmers while November saw the maximum number of 97,679 sessions covering over 64 lakh farmers. “2.23 crore SMS messages have been sent to farmers during the month of October,” the official said, furnishing these figures.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself spearheaded the task of creating awareness and has spoken on these reforms over 25 times since they were announced, which is nearly an address every week. “PM spoke about the reforms from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, during the Bihar elections where NDA got a victory and in multiple addresses to farmers and during Mann Ki Baat,” the official said. He also cited how the PM had cited the examples of various progressive farmers who got the benefits of these provisions and cleared myths.
The official also said that in the run-up to preparing the laws, the Agriculture Ministry had consulted various experts, former officials, agriculture departments of various states, and some progressive Farmers and Mandi officials. “The Ministry also consulted a prominent Farmers union and even did a change in the ordinance after their feedback,” the official said. After the reforms were announced, Agriculture Minister N. S. Tomar met state agriculture ministers, farmer groups, political groups, aadhatiyas, and industry groups, the official said.
The government has held five meetings with the farmer groups after the protests started against the bills, staring with Union Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal meeting 29 Farmer Unions from Punjab in October. This was followed by three central ministers, Narendra Singh Tomar, Piyush Goyal and Som Prakash meeting representatives of farmers organizations of Punjab on November 13, December 2, December 3, and December 5.
“There is a manufactured perception that the central government has not done extensive outreach and consultations with farmers and their representatives, in the context of the ongoing farmer protests against the new agriculture laws,” a senior government official said. He said a comprehensive awareness and outreach drive has been undertaken at multiple levels with thousands of small gatherings took place at the village level to inform a large number of farmers about the bills.
The official said that in June 2020, 708 trainings and webinars were organised covering 21,231 farmers, 873 trainings and webinars were conducted reaching out to 26,196 farmers in July followed by 852 and 840 training and webinar sessions conducted covering 25,569 and 25,205 farmers in August and September respectively. October saw 36,102 training and webinar sessions covering over 27 lakh farmers while November saw the maximum number of 97,679 sessions covering over 64 lakh farmers. “2.23 crore SMS messages have been sent to farmers during the month of October,” the official said, furnishing these figures.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself spearheaded the task of creating awareness and has spoken on these reforms over 25 times since they were announced, which is nearly an address every week. “PM spoke about the reforms from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, during the Bihar elections where NDA got a victory and in multiple addresses to farmers and during Mann Ki Baat,” the official said. He also cited how the PM had cited the examples of various progressive farmers who got the benefits of these provisions and cleared myths.
The official also said that in the run-up to preparing the laws, the Agriculture Ministry had consulted various experts, former officials, agriculture departments of various states, and some progressive Farmers and Mandi officials. “The Ministry also consulted a prominent Farmers union and even did a change in the ordinance after their feedback,” the official said. After the reforms were announced, Agriculture Minister N. S. Tomar met state agriculture ministers, farmer groups, political groups, aadhatiyas, and industry groups, the official said.
The government has held five meetings with the farmer groups after the protests started against the bills, staring with Union Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal meeting 29 Farmer Unions from Punjab in October. This was followed by three central ministers, Narendra Singh Tomar, Piyush Goyal and Som Prakash meeting representatives of farmers organizations of Punjab on November 13, December 2, December 3, and December 5.
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1 Comment on this Story
 | Vikram 40 minutes ago And they rejected your proposal.. Why is govt not able to understand it? Also this one way communication with so say from farmers side is like monkey-bath of Modi. |