Farm reforms will help turn farmers into entrepreneurs Modi

    Mumbai, Oct 13 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
Tuesday said his government's 'historic' farm reforms will
create opportunities to take farmers to entrepreneurship and
added his regime is focused on increasing their income.
    Modi was speaking after releasing the autobiography of
former Union Minister Balasaheb Vikhe Patil and renaming the
Pravara Rural Education Society in Ahmednagar district after
the Padma Bhushan recipient, via video conferencing.
    Terming the farm reforms as historic, the prime
minister said, "Today opportunities are being created to take
farming and farmers from the role of annadata (food provider)
to entrepreneurship."
    Referring to high milk, sugar, and wheat production in
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab, Modi said such
models of local enterprise will take the country forward.
    He said there was a time after Independence when the
country did not have sufficient food stock.
    "The governments priority then was to increase food
production. So the entire focus was on increasing production.
Farmers toiled hard to achieve the objective," Modi said.
    "But governments and policies did not pay attention
towards profitability of farmers while being concerned about
increasing productivity.
    "People forgot about income for farmers. But for the
first time, this thinking has been changed," he said and
listed steps the Centre has taken for the welfare of farmers.
    Noting that the COVID-19 threat still persists, Modi
called for observing social distancing norms and maintaining
effective personal hygiene. PTI ENM VT
VT VT

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)