Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced a food processing scheme, “Sampada” to integrate current and new schemes aimed at reducing food wastage and doubling farmers’ income. “Today, I want to announce a new scheme. The scheme will be called Sampada. It is for agro product value addition,” Modi said after laying the foundation stone of an agriculture research institute in northern Assam’s Gogamukh. “We want to modernise the agricultural sector. We have a dream which will change the fate of farmers. We want to double the income of farmers by 2022. We are working on it. We have five years,” he said.
“We have been working for the past three years. For a country as big as ours, it is too little a time. But people have seen what we have done,” he asserted. Highlighting the potentials of Northeast, which is rich in natural resources and bio-diversity, the PM said the NE (Northeast) meant the “New Engine”. “North East will not be known as North East anymore but New Engineering and New Engine. The New Engine will drive India’s economy forward,” he asserted.