‘Good Agriculture Practice’ policy to be announced soon, says Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja

The Agriculture Secretary, Manoj Ahuja said on Tuesday that the government is working on ‘Good Agriculture Practice’ to benefit the Indian agriculture sector. He was addressing a conference on ‘Scope of Public-Private Partnerships in Agriculture’ organized by FICCI. Zee Business Ambrish Pandey's report.

“There is a concern at the international level on having a sustainable agriculture, good agriculture practices along with environment concern. This is an area where the government has not yet come out with a policy, but we want to come up with a policy on ‘Good Agriculture Practice. We would have a policy on this, and we would work together with the industry on this,” Agriculture Secretary said.
 
He added that micro-irrigation is a priority area for the government. “We will work out a model to provide easy financing along with providing subsidy so as to create a simple system for the farmers. We need to address these concerns,” he highlighted.

The Secretary further stated that it is imperative for the farmers to get easy and simple solutions to their problems through digital platforms. “It would be beneficial for the farmers if we can provide these technology interventions through a common open source,” said Ahuja.
 
While addressing the concerns raised by the industry, Ahuja added that quality agri-inputs is also an area of concern for the government and steps are needed to further improve it. “If we really need to scale-up our interventions, then we need to have a proper framework. Government can intervene to bridge the infrastructure gap in the sector,” he added.