NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised farmers a good price for their harvest and low input costs as his government’s initiatives to double their incomes by 2022 will help the nation’s food producers at every stage from sowing to selling.“The entire credit for nation’s food security should go to the farmers,” he said in a video interaction, which connected the prime minister with two lakh Common Service Centres and 600 Krishim Vigyan Kendras across the country, a government statement said.Modi said Indian agriculture has grown significantly in the past four years as farmers helped the country achieve record output of milk, fruit and vegetables.Speaking to farmers from more than 600 districts, he said the government had almost doubled the budget provision for agriculture to Rs 212,000 crore from Rs 121,000 during the tenure of the previous government.Similarly, food grain production has increased to more than 279 million tonne in 2017-18 compared to an average of 255 million tonne in 2014. In this period, fish farming expanded 26% because of the government’s Blue Revolution scheme while animal husbandry and milk production increased 24%.He emphasized that the government wanted to ensure minimal cost of raw material, fair value for the produce, stopping wastage of the produce and alternate sources of income for the farmers, the statement said.The prime minister told farmers about various initiatives that the government had taken for their welfare. These include Soil Health Cards, Kisan Credit Cards, quality fertilizers with the help of neem-coated urea, crop insurance through Fasal Bima Yojana and irrigation through Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, which had brought 29 lakh hectares under irrigation and 100 projects are being completed.The government’s online trading platform for commodities, e-NAM, was helping farmers sell their produce at the right price. In the past four years, more than 585 regulated wholesale markets have been brought under e-NAM.It has also brought nearly 22 lakh hectares of land under organic farming, up from just 7 lakh hectares in 2013-14. The government also plans to promote the Northeast as the hub of organic farming.During the interaction, Modi also appreciated the growth of farmer producer organisations that helped farmers collectively bargain lower rates for their inputs and higher prices for their harvest compared to what farmers were able to get individually.“In the past four years, 517 farmer producer organisations have been created and income tax exemption has been granted to farmer producer companies to encourage cooperatives amongst farmers.” The statement said beneficiaries of various agricultural schemes explained how government schemes helped improve production. Beneficiaries also highlighted the importance of Soil Health Card and shared their experiences of cooperative movement, it said.