Angul: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday interacted with farmers of this district through video link from Delhi as a part of his ongoing interactions with farmers across the country.
During the session lasting an hour and half, the Prime Minister praised the efforts of the farmers in feeding the nation and encouraged them to adopt modern agriculture processes. Modi heaped praise on women farmers who, he noted, played a big role in boosting the country’s farm output.
The PM gave the example of Binapani Rout, a woman farmer of Kusasinga village in the district who had taken over farming after her husband met with an accident and turned physically-challenged. He directly interacted with Binapani and assured her all help.
Terming Rout as a source of inspiration for other women, the Prime Minister expressed his happiness over that fact that she has formed a multi-purpose cooperative society having 151 women of the locality as its members. The cooperative society receives agricultural output from local farmers and markets the produce.
Similarly, another farmer, Benudhar Pradhan of Durgapur in the district apprised the PM about the success achieved by him through modern agricultural practices and integrated farming. “My father had five acres of land. He used to do farming through traditional methods and three acres of land lay vacant. Later, I visited the Agricultural Science Centre and sought advice for better farming. They trained me, and I started integrated farming with pisciculture in my pond, vegetable farming, paddy cultivation, dairy farming, poultry farming and ornamental fish-rearing,” said Pradhan during his conversation with Modi.
“While my father used to earn Rs 40,000-50,000 a year, I am currently earning Rs four to five lakh per annum,” an evidently happy Pradhan said.
Concluding the video conference, Modi said, “I congratulate the farmers of Odisha for adapting themselves to modern ways of farming, and showing the rest of the country what progress is.”
To watch the video click here:
