Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (DA&FW) Dr. Devesh Chaturvedi held a meeting with Vice-President, South Asian Region, World Bank Shri Martin Raiser yesterday at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the priorities of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and deepening collaboration on ongoing issues, including soil health, climate resilient agriculture and access to carbon markets and digital agriculture.

Secretary informed the World Bank delegation about the priorities of the government in agriculture sector. He informed that the government is making efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses and oilseeds, promoting of sustainable agriculture, implementing policies to overcome the challenge of small holding size, and implementing policies to improve delivery of services to the farmers and bring behavioral change at scale. 

During the meeting, the discussion was focused on ways to ensure the benefits of the carbon credit to the small and marginal farmers; challenges of decreasing farm size; access of capital to the Farmers Producers organization; leveraging digital, and soil health infrastructure for behavioral change at scale for sustainable use of input; designing policies to incentivize farmers to adopt sustainable agriculture practices and climate smart and resilient agriculture.   

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