Contract farming will increase farm incomes: PM Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday stressed on farmers getting more avenues to sell crops, coupled with the adoption of contract farming and higher food processing being the need of the hour to tap global markets.

Modi, speaking at a national webinar on provisions of the Budget for the farm sector, said the "vision of the government" had small farmers, who make up 86 per cent of total cultivators in the country, at the centre of policymaking.

Modi stressed: "Contract farming has been present in India in some form or the other for a very long time," and added there was a need to ensure that it did not remain just a business concept. Without making any direct reference to the three new farm reform laws or to the three-month-old agitation by farmers, Modi said there is a need for expanding options for the country's farming community to sell agri produce.

Thousands of farmers, especially in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, are protesting a set of laws of approved by Parliament last year to deregulate the farm sector, including a law on contract farming. The farmers are demanding a repeal of the laws.

The webinar, which was attended by Union Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, focussed on effective implementation of budgetary allocations with regard to the agriculture and farmers' welfare ministry, an official statement said.