Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday emphasised that plant-based foods were an important option as an ”alternative diet” in view of the challenges that agriculture was facing.

”Plant-based foods, apart from meeting the needs of the times, will create job opportunities and boost agriculture. Such a step will also give strength to the agriculture sector,” he said at a conference titled “Dawn of a Plant-Based Age,” organised at the Pragati Maidan here during the ‘Aahaar’ exhibition.

Tomar said everyone was well aware of the present and future challenges, food security being one of them.

”In the coming decades, India will complete the centenary of Independence, by that time the population will also increase, but due to the works like infrastructural development, laying of new railway lines in large numbers, construction of world-class national highways for modern and developed India, we have to be prepared for the possible reduction in the area under cultivation,” he added.

The Centre and the state governments were rapidly engaged in fulfilling the ambitious target of making India a ‘Developed Nation’ by 2047. ”There is a need to think from now on how much food we will need till the year 2050 and how much global demand will increase from us.”

In this direction, the Centre was making all efforts at its level and Prime Minister Modi has taken steps in a planned manner towards realising the vision of overall and balanced development, Tomar said.

He was of the view that people’s interest in agriculture should increase continuously. This was why the PM always insisted that private investment should come in the agriculture sector, new techniques should come, work should get simpler and farmers reap more profit.

”It has to be understood that the farmer is the basis of farming. The first priority should be to give benefits and prestige to the farmers so that they can stay in farming, feed the country and also fulfill the expectations of the world. Continuous efforts are being made in this direction through various schemes by the government,” the minister added.