RANCHI: Lakhs of farmers in Jharkhand can expect to have interest free farm loans from next year. Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Thursday announced it while at the inaugural ceremony in presence of chief guest Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh at the maiden Global Agriculture & Food Summit’18 which kicked off at the mega sports complex in Hotwar.Farmers rejoiced, on a day when lakhs of farmers their counterparts from other states took out a protest march in Delhi today to press for waivers on farm loans.“You will get loan on zero percent. Government will take care of the interests accrued in the first year,” said he calling farmers asThough, Das’s announcement will only benefit farmers who will take fresh loans but the BJP led ruling dispensation is sure to milk the announcements in poll year — 2019 to its advantage.Das spoke of how his government intends to double farmers’ income by 2022, a target set pan-India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.“From 2019, we are going to start free distribution of mobile phones to 28 lakh farmers in Jharkhand till 2021, which will give them an edge to be in tune with technological advancements,” Das announced.“Even next year, farmers don’t have to pay any premium on(crop insurance) like 2018. Latest by May 2019, farmers will get six hour power through dedicated feeder while similar feeders for industry, public etc are also being set up on war footing. By August 2019, there will be 24x7 power in each village. These are some of the things planned by us to double farmers income, and many more are being thought of,” Das boasted, urging farmers to take up solar as well as organic farming assuring them that government will link them with appropriate markets.This first ever two-day summit at Tana Bhagat indoor stadium is aimed at providing platform to farmers and investors to accelerate farm sector in Jharkhand. It saw presence of around 8,000 people, comprising over 5000 farmers, official representatives from partner countries namely Tunisia, China, Israel, Philippines and Mongolia and ‘focus country’ Morocco besides industry captains and senior bureaucrats.Union agriculture minister Singh, speaking before Das, mostly focussed on criticising how past governments at Centre (read Congress) or state did nothing for farmers for decades, but under Modi’s rule, several path-breaking schemes and plans are putting agriculture sector on development map. Equally hailing Das, he said in last four years, Jharkhand’s agriculture growth rate, which was minus 4.5 percent in 2013-14 has today crossed over 14 percent.“For example, revolution is happening in fisheries as compared to 1 lakh tonnes production of fishes in 2013-14, Jharkhand today has doubled in four years. Similarly, compared to production of 100 crore fish seeds four years back, today, the production is about 1060 crore,” he said, adding that Centre too is equally assisting Jharkhand by all means, citing how they allotted an Indian Institute of Agriculture Research Institute, Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology etc.

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