New Delhi, July 22 (PTI) Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday laid the foundation stone of the plant authority building at Pusa campus in the national capital.

The National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy-2016 has been implemented through better infrastructure and modifications to encourage innovations, and protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority (PPVFRA) is affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, an official statement said.

In this IPR, the certificate is awarded only after crops are grown and verification the claim made by the farmer. Under the new IPR policy, the IPR authorities are being strengthened by the government by providing necessary manpower and infrastructure.

On this occasion, Tomar said the rights of farmers are being protected through plant authority.

He informed that one floor will be allocated for the establishment of the courts of the Authority and two floors will be allocated for registry work along with other support systems.

Tomar said the new building for plant authority makes it easier for the visiting farmers and consumers.

It is expected that work on the new office building will start from next year, the statement said.

"With this, the farmers can get rights over their traditional varieties and the seeds of any other variety produced by them. It also ensures that the farmers are not exploited by infringement of intellectual property rights," it added.

On this occasion, Ministers of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary and Shobha Karandlaje, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal, National Rainfed Area Authority CEO Ashok Dalwai, PPVFRA Chairman K V Prabhu, Joint Secretary (Seeds) Ashwini Kumar, ASRB Chairman A K Mishra were also present.

Tomar also inaugurated the office of National Farmers Welfare Program Implementation Committee.

Speaking on the occasion, he said the committee would act as a project monitoring unit for the implementation of PM-Kisan Yojana, Kisan Maandhan Yojana, Agriculture Infrastructure Fund and other schemes of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Tomar said the central government has implemented the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme to make farmers self-reliant and to provide direct income support for agricultural expenditure.

Under this scheme, an amount of Rs 1.37 lakh crore has been transferred to the accounts of more than 11 crore farmer families so far.

The minister said the Centre along with the experts, IT companies of the country is working with new technology to make the farmers self-reliant.

"Various technological solutions are being developed through Aadhar integration with UIDAI, launch of mobile app and integration with CSCs, KCC, integration with land records database maintained by States/UTs," the statement said.

Apart from the union ministers and agriculture secretary, PM-Kisan Scheme CEO Vivek Agarwal as well as senior officers and representatives of various agencies were present.

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