New Delhi, Oct 24 (IANS): From doubling farmers' income to bringing in cutting-edge new techniques in agriculture, the government has in the last decade lived up to its commitment of boosting the farming sector, said Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (independent charge) for Science and Technology, Minister of State (independent charge) for Earth Sciences, on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters at an event in the national capital, Jitendra Singh said that the government has realised the importance of agriculture and also aligning it with modern technology.

"This is one of the major initiatives. In the last 10 years, since 2014, one after the other, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lived up to his commitment of doubling farmers' income, and brought in cutting-edge new techniques in the farming sector,” Singh said.

He added that the country has also developed state-of-the-art competence in weather forecast.

"Gone are the times when we were having a very limited resource. Now we are combining space technology with radar. And we have apps, we have WhatsApp groups, which are dedicated exclusively to the farmers," Jitendra Singh said.

A new initiative to provide Gram Panchayats with daily weather forecasting and provision to check hour weather forecasts was also launched on Thursday by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj in collaboration with the India Meteorological Department.

The service will provide localised daily weather forecasts for five days and enhance disaster preparedness.

The forecasts will be available on the digital platform e-GramSwaraj and the mobile application Meri Panchayat and Gram Manchitra.

In August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that agriculture is at the centre of India's economic policies. He also noted that small farmers are the biggest strength of India's food security.

"Agriculture is at the centre of India's economic policies. 90 per cent of small farmers of India who own little land make for the biggest strength of India's food security," PM Modi said.