"There is a need to get rid of the description that farmer means poor," Kailash Choudhary said. (File)
Union Minister Kailash Choudhary on Thursday said there is a need to get rid of the description that "farmer means poor" as this kind of "misconception" is discouraging youth from pursuing agriculture as a profession.
Addressing an event organised by the digital platform Rural Voice, the Minister of State for Agriculture expressed concern over youth getting disinterested in the farming activities and cited the misconception that "farmer is poor" created in books and media as one of the reasons for this situation.
"There is a need to get rid of the description that farmer means poor," he said.
Whenever there is a discussion on farmers in villages or other places, there is a general perception that 'farmers must be poor', he said.
Even in any story (literary work) on farmers, it always starts with 'a poor farmer used to live in this village', he said, adding that the word 'poor' is always associated with farmers.
"As a result, everyone has started thinking that farmers must be poor. Whenever I see a photo of a farmer in a magazine, a farmer is projected with torn clothes sitting in a parched land looking up to the sky," he said.
This kind of description of a farmer has led to "misconception" in the minds of youth who do not want to pursue farming as a profession, he said.
The youth think that if he gets into agriculture, his situation will be like it is described in books and media, he added.
Highlighting steps being taken to boost the Agri sector, the minister said the government is working towards achieving the Prime Minister's vision of doubling farmers' income even as he stressed the need to shift to crop diversification and high-value crops to get better returns.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)