Union Minister for Agriculture Shivraj Singh Chouhan Tuesday set in motion the process of dialogue with farmers and farmers’ organisations in Delhi.

”As I have said before, agriculture is the backbone of India’s economy and farmers are its soul and serving farmers is like worshiping God for us. He said that last time when I was discussing the achievements of 100 days, I decided that I will start a series of meetings with farmers or farmer organisations every Tuesday because many times we do not understand the problems while sitting in the office,” he said on the occasion.

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He said it is the government’s duty to directly communicate with those who have problems, and discuss with them any issue that comes up. Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) were also present during the dialogue.

Mr Chouhan said continuous work is being done under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the overall development of the agriculture sector. Many schemes related to agriculture have been implemented in the last ten years and this sequence is continuing. So far, seven major schemes have been approved in the first 100 days of the third term of the Modi government.

He said the central government will spend Rs 15,000 crore on these schemes, which will benefit the farmers. A total of Rs 2,817 crore will be given for the Digital Agriculture Mission and agricultural reforms will continue through technology.

Decisions are being taken in the interest of farmers and the country, he said. Mr Chouhan said today he met about 50 farmer leaders and received many suggestions from them. Some of the suggestions are related to the price of crops and some are about the crop insurance scheme. Some suggestions are also about the problem of stray animals and the losses caused by them.

He has said that he will sit with the officials and work on all the suggestions seriously.