New Delhi, Jul 28 (IANS): Emphasising its focus on small and marginal farmers, India on Wednesday reiterated the ommitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and in making the country's agri-food systems sustainable.

Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar virtually delivered the Ministerial Statement in the pre-summit meet of the United Nations Food System Summit 2021 wherein he emphasised the importance of agriculture in achieving the SDGs 2030 as 12 out of 17 of them are directly dependent on agriculture.

He listed the creation of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund with a corpus of Rs one lakh crore, formation of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), and the PM KISAN Scheme through which an amount of 1.37 lakh crore has been credited to the bank accounts of 11 crore farmers, a government release said here.

Tomar said that agriculture plays an important role in the socio-economic transformation of developing countries and mentioned the journey of Indian agriculture from a state of food shortages to that of a food grain exporter through 'Green', 'White' and 'Blue' revolutions.

He said that India is conscious of its commitments towards climate change and mentioned the steps taken by government in making agriculture sustainable, highlighting the "Per Drop More Crop" scheme for irrigation, "Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana" for organic farming, as well as the "Soil Health Card" scheme to conserve water and soil resources.

He also said that the government has launched the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) to provide insurance protection for covering the risk of farmers.

The Minister thanked the UN for accepting India's proposal to celebrate the year 2023 as 'International Year of Millets'.