VP Dhankhar favours direct subsidy transfer to farmers, cites successful US model

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Describing farmers as the soul of India and the most important part of social stability, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday highlighted the government's efforts to boost their income and called for removing middlemen from the subsidy transfer mechanism.

Addressing the scientific community and farmers at Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, a research institute established under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in Goa, the Vice President said, "The Government of India is helping the farmers a lot in the form of subsidies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had started a scheme called Kisan Samman Nidhi, but I would request all the organisations to evaluate how good it would be if the subsidy to the farmers reaches them directly and not through someone else."

Citing the successful American model of eliminating middlemen in providing farm subsidies, Dhankhar said, "The fertiliser subsidy is a very big amount, around rupees three lakh crore. You probably don't realise that you are being helped so much, but if this money is sent directly to every farmer, then every farmer will have Rs 30,000-35,000 per year."

"So, this medium of giving government assistance to farmers is not right, it should be given directly to the farmers. Institutions should evaluate it, it should be looked at technically. It will have far-reaching results," he said.

Dhankhar said in America, the income of a farmer's family is more than that of an average family. "There, farmers get all the government assistance directly and not through any middleman," he said.

Earlier, speaking at another event at Raj Bhavan, Goa, the Vice President called for focusing on alternative medicine and evidence-based validation of our ancient texts to make them accessible and applicable to contemporary challenges.

"We are a nation with a difference... We are rediscovering our roots, and we will get rooted in our roots. I strongly focus on alternative medicine because India is the home of alternative medicine. It is being practised now very extensively," he said.

Calling for the need to utilise ancient knowledge, Jagdeep Dhankhar said, "Let us not confine our ancient texts to libraries. They are not meant for the shelf of a library. They are meant to be widely disseminated. Let us bring timeless ideas to life through research, innovation, and reinterpretation using modern scientific tools."

The Vice President also talked about validation for ancient Indian medicine systems. "Let us pursue evidence-based validation, digitisation, translations, and cross-disciplinary studies to make these treasures accessible and applicable to contemporary challenges... I am extremely happy that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised it by establishing a global centre for traditional medicine in Jamnagar, Gujarat. What a powerful recognition of the universal relevance of our systems like Ayurveda," he said.

"Time for us to look back in our Vedas, in our Upanishads, in our Puranas, in our history and time to tell our children from birth about our civilisational depth of knowledge," he added.