Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 17 Oct: Uttarakhand Agriculture Minister, Ganesh Joshi participated via video conferencing from Circuit House, Dehradun, in a review meeting of the ‘Khet Bachao Abhiyan’ (Save the Fields Campaign), organised under the Rabi Campaign-2026 and chaired by Union Agriculture Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
During the meeting, Joshi briefed the Union Agriculture Minister on the activities planned under the campaign in Uttarakhand and raised various issues concerning the welfare of farmers.
Joshi informed the meeting that 25 programmes would be organised in each of Uttarakhand’s 95 development blocks under the ‘Khet Bachao Abhiyan’. Accordingly, a total of 2,375 programmes have been planned across the state, with a target of involving approximately 1.20 lakh farmers. As part of the campaign, 11,000 mini-kits of lentil seeds will also be distributed among farmers.
During the meeting, Joshi urged Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to take necessary action to provide compensation exceeding the prescribed norms under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) to those farmers affected by the recent hailstorms in Uttarakhand. He informed the Union Minister that crops had been damaged across approximately 17,000 hectares in the state. He said that enhanced compensation would help the affected farmers recover from their losses.
Joshi also requested the Union Agriculture Minister to ensure the early disbursement of crop insurance claims to farmers affected during Kharif 2026 and Rabi 2025–26 under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and the Restructured Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS).
Emphasising the need for timely relief, he stressed that the requisite data must be uploaded to the concerned portals at the earliest so that eligible farmers could receive their insurance payments without delay.
The Uttarakhand Agriculture Minister further urged the Union Agriculture Minister to immediately release the remaining funds under the fencing scheme, in addition to the ₹25 crore already sanctioned by the Government of India. He said that the release of the pending amount would facilitate the effective implementation of the scheme in Uttarakhand and help safeguard farmers’ crops.
Joshi also expressed his gratitude to the Union Agriculture Minister for the initiatives being undertaken by the Central Government in the interest of Uttarakhand’s farmers.
Director General of Agriculture and Horticulture Dr Anand Srivastava, Director of Agriculture Dinesh Singh, Additional Director Dr Suresh Ram, Director of the Horticulture Mission Mahendra Pal, Chief Executive Officer, UHB, Narendra Kumar Yadav, and other officials were present at the meeting.
