Farmers must get timely and adequate credit supply, says Gopinath Munde

MUMBAI: Problems faced by farmers could be solved with a three-pronged strategy including timely and adequate supply of credit, senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde said here today.

"Farmers should get both short term and long term credit so that they may undertake boring of wells and laying pipelines to irrigate their fields," Munde said, speaking after presenting awards instituted to honour prominent figures of the country's agrarian sector.

He said more than than two lakh tonnes of foodgrain rot away because there is no storage facility.

"Efforts should be made to provide individual storage facility for farmers along with boosting overall godown capacity," he said.

The BJP deputy leader in the Lok Sabha also favoured building small dams instead of big ones.

About the subsidy extended by the government for drip irrigation, Munde said the subsidy amount should be given directly to farmers instead of companies getting it.

Former additional advocate general of Rajasthan government Rampal Jat, T N Prakash of the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, Dadabhau Bhau Jadhav of Mahatma Phule Agriculture University Rahuri and agro journalist Anand Gade of AgroOne Pune were honoured with the awards last night.

The awards have been instituted by the Phoenix Foundation, founded by former BJP MLC Pasha Patel.