'Increase farm output, aim for food grain exports'

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked farmers to embrace modern technologies to increase farm output and also aim for fulfilling demands for food grains from other countries.

Speaking at a function to launch the National Agriculture Market, Modi also asked farmers to diversify to increase their income from farming and allied activities.

“I recently visited Saudi Arabia and the UAE. They are ready to invest in cold storage and warehousing. A huge opportunity awaits farmers to diversify into food processing,” he said.

The prime minister asked farmers to take up cultivation of pulses in water scarce regions and not insist on harvesting water guzzling crop. He exhorted farmers to grow more pulses so that the country need not depend on imports to meet its domestic demand.

“The Saudis clearly told me that they were looking to import food grains from India in the future to meet their domestic needs. A huge market awaits us in the Gulf,” Modi said.
Earlier, Modi launched the e-trading portal of the e-National Agriculture Market (eNAM) that linked 21 wholesale markets across eight states.

Farmers across eight states will now be able to sell 25 farm products online.
The government plans to link 585 major wholesale markets across the country by March 2018 as a part of its efforts to help farmers double their income by 2022.

To join the eNAM, state governments need to amend their Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act to allow for a single trading license valid across the state, single-point levy of market fee and provision for electronic auction as a mode for price discovery. As many as 12 states have done so and eight of them joined the eNAM on Thursday.