Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Rural Development sign MoU to take the convergence endeavour ahead

Workshop held on Leveraging SHG platform for rural economic growth through the convergence of schemes of Ministries of Rural Development, Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Tribal Affairs and Food Processing Industries

August 18, 2020, New Delhi: Union Minister of Rural Development and Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar addressed the State Rural Livelihoods Missions across the country through video conferencing today to deliberate upon leveraging the SHG platform for rural economic growth through the convergence of schemes of different Ministries. Addressing the video conference, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said that DAY-NRLM has facilitated the creation of the SHG network of 66 lakh SHGs covering 7.14 crore rural women. Further emphasis should be given to promote livelihoods through a convergence approach to enhance their incomes. Shri Tomar observed that all the Ministries present in the workshop, also have schemes designed to support Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) and a collaborative approach may be adopted to strengthen the initiative.

The meeting was also addressed by Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Shri Arjun Munda and Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Shri Arjun Munda lauded the new chapter that is being started for the growth of the rural economy. He said that there are opportunities for convergence in Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana (PMVDY), a scheme under Ministry of Tribal Affairs. He expressed that both Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Food Processing Industries can partner in PMVDY and involve in capacity building, value addition and marketing of the products from the tribal populated states, which may significantly increase the income of the tribal households.

Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that food processing is a sector with an important role to play in increasing the income of farmers. She highlighted the importance of processing and value addition of food products to enhance income and reduce the wastage of primary agriculture and horticulture produce. She emphasized that the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has schemes on supporting research and development, training and packaging. Schemes of MoRD and MoTA can utilize these resources of MoFPI to promote livelihood interventions in rural areas.

On the occasion, Union Rural Development and Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar released a book “Farm Livelihood Interventions under DAY-NRLM (Strategy, Convergence Framework, Models)”. Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Ministry of Rural Development signed an MoU to take the convergence endeavour ahead and support rural poor including tribal community, complementing each other’s strengths through appropriate convergence and synergic efforts in order to fetch tangible results to be reckoned with.