This information was given by Harish Rawat, minister of state for agriculture and food processing industries, in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
The ICAR has also created a network of 630 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in the country to facilitate farmers' access to agricultural technology generated by National Agricultural Research System.
The department of agriculture & cooperation is implementing Kisan Call Centre (KCC) programme under which agriculture related information is provided to the farmers in 22 regional languages through a countrywide common toll free number 1800-180-1551 covering all the states and Union territory of India.
In another written reply, Rawat said, "The government fixes the minimum support price (MSP) of various crops on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP), the views of concerned state governments and Central ministries / departments to ensure a minimum return to the growers. While formulating its recommendations on price policy, CACP considers a number of important factors which include, interalia, cost of production, changes in input prices, trends in market prices, demand and supply situation, effect on general price level, effect on cost of living etc."
The MSP is in the nature of a minimum guaranteed price for the farmers offered by the government for their produce in case the market prices fall below that level. If the market offers higher price than MSP, the farmers are free to sell at that price.
The agriculture sector has grown at an average of 3.3% per annum in the Eleventh Five Year Plan as compared to 2.3% during Tenth Five Year Plan. The total number of cultivators has also increased since 1951.
In addition, the government is implementing various programmes / schemes, inter alia, with the objective of improving productivity, profitability and economic viability of farming which includes Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), National Food Security Mission (NFSM), and National Horticulture Mission (NHM).
