Dr. Ramesh Chand , Member, NITI Aayog, with pioneer Stevia Farmers, Dr. Rajpal Singh Gandhi and Amandeep Singh Gandhi, at Pojewal in Nawanshahr district.
Nawanshahr, March 26, 2017: Dr. Ramesh Chand, a member of Task force on Agriculture Development under Niti Aayog,visited Green Valley Stevia Farm at village Pojewal in Nawanshahr district. The visit was aimed at to explore the potential of bringing the Stevia farming in the main stream of agriculture in India . The owners of the farm,Rajpal Singh Gandhi and his son Amandeep Singh Gandhi, poineer in Stevia farming and development,provided all the facts and information on stevia farming. The Niti Aayog member was also apprised of the first hand information regarding the functioning of processing unit set up there. The Processing unit, is first of its kind in India supported under innovation scheme by Department of Biotechnology under Ministry of Science & Technology, New Delhi.
While urging, Dr.Ramesh Chand to make immediate effective mechanism for farmers to adopt stevia farming for making their occupation remunerative, they stressed the need of bringing Stevia crop on mandate of Agricultural Universities for providing package of practices to the farmers willing to adopt this crop. The farmers willing to adopt Stevia cultivation should be provided soft loans to farmers instead of subsidy.
“ In India Stevia Sweetener has been approved by Food Safety Standards Authority of India under the category of Artificial Sweetener whereas being a agricultural product it should have been approved under natural sweetener category or sweetener category like sugar. Stevia sweetener should be exempted from state tax VAT as in the case of sugar to promote its farming in the country”, further suggested Gandhi while adding that stevia crop have the potential of solving many agriculture related problems. Irrigation water requirement is only 10% as compared to other traditional crops and can be easily grown organically.
Stevia is a zero calorie natural sweetener which is becoming much popular in the world being a diabetic friendly sweetener and as an alternative to sugar.
Dr. Ramesh Chand, member Niti Aayog, while terming his visit very fruitful said the National Institute for Transforming India ( Niti Aayog) was set up by the PM, Nrendra Modi. “ It is aimed at fostering involvement and participation in the economic policy making process by the state governments in India. The emphasis is on bottom-up approach and making the country to move towards cooperative federalism”, said Dr. Ramesh Chander while assuring that the valuable suggestions given by the pioneer stevia farmers as well as the first hand information and experience obtained during the visit would minutely be looked into.