Export-import policy must protect farmer interests

Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is currently visiting states as part of the Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan, which aims to familiarise 15 million farmers with practices specific to agro-climatic zones.

- 

Chouhan speaks to Sandip Das on the sidelines of an event in Sehore, Madhya Pradesh, on a range of issues impacting the agriculture sector. Excerpts:

It has been a year since you took charge. What are the challenges the agriculture sector is facing?

We need to ensure that farmers with small land holdings derive profit from agricultural activities. We are focusing on producing better seeds through usage of new technologies—the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) recently released two genome-edited rice varieties. Crop diversification is also a challenge. We need to produce more oilseeds and pulses—we are now producing more rice than required. The soybean yield has to be increased. Scientists should come to the fields and do research based on the needs of the farmer.

Another focus area is to align the use of fertilisers with soil quality. We need to create soil health cards for each farmer and need to educate them about the balanced use of fertilisers. After promotion of drip irrigation and mechanisation, we need to work on curbing excessive usage of pesticides.