Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, November 12, urged India's farmers to move beyond wheat, rice and sugarcane, diversify into other crops and adopt natural farming, telling the Kisan Tak Bharat Agriculture Conference 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi that chemical use in agriculture is destroying the soil. He also asked MSME entrepreneurs to shift farm machinery to solar power.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

The two-day conference, organised by the India Today Group under the theme 'Smart Kisan, Viksit Bharat', brought together more than 2,000 farmers, agricultural scientists, policymakers, industry representatives and international experts on November 11 and 12, IANS reported. Modi said filling the country's granaries is no longer enough and that agriculture must evolve with markets and technology.

Source: IANS

Fertiliser subsidy and diesel claims

Modi said the Centre has spent nearly Rs 16 lakh crore on fertiliser subsidies over the last 12 years, so that a bag of urea that costs around Rs 3,000 in international markets reaches Indian farmers for less than Rs 300, and DAP at Rs 1,300 against a global price of about Rs 5,000. He also claimed that when crude oil rose from $70 to $122 a barrel after the war against Iran, the government raised diesel prices by only Rs 7 a litre instead of the Rs 50 he said was warranted, and is absorbing a loss of Rs 14,000 crore every month — figures he stated in his address, as reported by The Hindu BusinessLine.

Rs 16 lakh croreFertiliser subsidy cited by PM Modi
Rs 4 lakh crore+Annual agricultural exports cited
2,000+Farmers, scientists and experts at the conference

'Constitution in their pocket' dig at the Opposition

"These days, some people pull out the Constitution from their pockets. And they think that the nation's Constitution and democracy reside in their pocket. Even while out of power, they remain under a distinct intoxication of authority," Modi said, in remarks reported by ANI and IANS as a veiled attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who often carries a copy of the Constitution at public events. Modi did not name Gandhi. He recalled his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister and alleged that after a government-affiliated institution named after a former Prime Minister ranked Gujarat the country's best-performing state, the then Central government directed it to seek prior approval before publishing such reports.

Source: ANI via The Daily Jagran

On the farm economy, Modi said India now exports more than Rs 4 lakh crore of agricultural products a year, is the world's largest milk producer, and has raised milk production by 70 per cent, egg production by 90 per cent and honey output from about 80,000 tonnes to 1.5 lakh tonnes over the past decade, with horticulture output up from about 280 million tonnes to more than 350 million tonnes, IANS reported. Citing a World Bank study, he said 50 crore people have moved out of poverty, and that the government's aim is to turn 'annadatas' (food providers) into 'krishi udyamis' (agricultural entrepreneurs) through value addition at the source of production.