Parliament Question: National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 368 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 22ND JULY, 2025 NATIONAL MISSION ON SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

368. ADV GOWAAL KAGADA PADAVI:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS’ WELFARE कृ(cid:874)ष एवं (cid:873)कसान क(cid:227)याण मं(cid:287)ी

be pleased to state:

(a) the status of distribution of climate-resilient seed varieties to farmers under the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA);

(b) the number of tribal and smallholder farmers in drought-prone regions who have received these seeds;

(c) the details of funds allocated and disbursed for these seed programme in the past year;

(d) the outreach mechanisms to ensure timely awareness and seed delivery; and

(e) whether mobile-based advisories on crop rotation and weather are integrated into these programme? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ िष एवं िकसान क(cid:670)ाण रा(cid:475) मं(cid:361)ी (SHRI RAMNATH THAKUR)

(a) & (b): Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has released a total of 2900 varieties during last 10 years (2014-2024), out of which, 2661 varieties are tolerant to one or more biotic and/or abiotic stresses. Under National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project, 298 climate resilient varieties tolerant to drought/flood/ heat in 11 crops were demonstrated involving 11,835 farmers, across the 448 villages in 151 climatically vulnerable districts across the country. About 5278 tribal and smallholder farmers in 72 drought-prone districts under NICRA project received tolerant seeds of different crops for undertaking field demonstrations.(c): Government of India is implementing Sub Mission on Seeds and Planting Materials

(SMSP) from the year 2014-15 to promote production and multiplication of quality seeds of agricultural crops to make availability of required quantities of seed to farmers across the country. SMSP has now been merged with National Food Security and Nutrition Mission

(NFSNM) from 2023-24. During 2024-25, an amount of Rs. 270.90 crore was allocated under the seed scheme of SMSP (now merged with NFSNM) wherein an amount of Rs.

206.86 crore had been released to the States/UTs out of which 141.46 crore has been

provided under Seed Village Programme.

(d): Capacity building for establishing village level seed banks and community nurseries is being undertaken under NICRA project that enable availability of seeds in the adopted villages. Drought and flood tolerant climate-resilient varieties of rice, wheat, soybean, mustard, chickpea, sorghum, gram, and foxtail millet were demonstrated in several NICRA villages. Besides, training programmes are conducted under Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) on various issues of agricultural practices including the awareness of using quality seeds among the farmers.

(e): To mitigate the impacts of adverse weather on agriculture, under the Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) scheme, medium range weather forecast for next 5 days at district and block are generated by IMD. Based on rainfall and other weather parameters along with weather forecasts issued by IMD, 130 Agromet Field Units prepare Agromet Advisories in English as well as in the regional language for dissemination through multiple channels.

Also, farmers access weather information including alerts and related agromet advisories specific to their districts through the mobile App viz., ‘Meghdoot’ launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences which is available in English and 13 regional languages. These weather details are also accessible to farmers through ‘Mausam’ App of IMD.The Panchayat-level weather forecast information is accessible through multiple digital platforms, including:

eGramSwaraj (https://egramswaraj.gov.in/), ‘Gram Manchitra’ Application of MoPR (https://grammanchitra.gov.in/gm4MVC), ‘Meri Panchayat’ Mobile App and Mausamgram web portal of IMD (https://mausamgram.imd.gov.in/).

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