BETTIAH, June 3 -- In the course of his Bihar tour, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday exhorted farmers to implement agriculture technology in farming as the national development -- a pre-requisite of Viksit Bharat -- is routed through agricultural prosperity and overall welfare of the farmers. This is what, he emphasised, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has envisaged in his vision for India. Chouhan was delivering a keynote address Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Piprakothi in Bihar's East Champaran district. Chouhan, after laying the foundation stone of projects worth Rs.6.14 crore and leading a Tricolour March with farmers', underlined tremendous potential for agricultural development in Bihar. "I feel truly blessed for being on the soil of Champaran from where Mahatma Gandhi launched his movement for the cause of farmers, which culminated into mass movement... I am here to support and serve the farmers here and help increase agricultural productivity. For me, serving farmers is like worshipping God. 'Ek Rashtra, Ek Krishi, Ek Team' (one nation, one agriculture, one team) is the motto of this campaign," he said. Speaking about the ongoing 'Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan ((VKSA), which got off to a start on May 29 and will continue till June 12, he said the VKSA is an initiative aimed at transforming the life of farmers by encouraging them to adopt agricultural technologies across the nation and make them benefitted from our agricultural scientists and experts. "As a part of this programme, as many as 2,170 teams with each comprising four agriculture scientists, who have fanned out across the country, are engaging farmers with valuable inputs to improve the agriculture production across all districts in a mission to build Viksit Bharat. However, on my part, the very purpose of having the ministry of agriculture will be defeated, if the interact with farmers and their difficulties are not understood by me," said the agriculture minister, justifying his visit to Piprakothi-based Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Piprakoth. On potential for agriculture in Bihar, he said, "For a developed India, agriculture must develop and farmers must also prosper.....and the VKSA campaign will spur economic development of the region through transformation in agriculture and facilitating farmers access to innovation, infrastructure, and institutional support." Referring to the increase in production of maize in Bihar, he said the crop was getting good prices thanks to the policy initiative of the PM. "Maize is now also being used to make ethanol," he said. "Earlier, maize was sold at between Rs.1,200 and Rs.1,500 per quintal. The price has increased due to ethanol. Earlier, yield was 23 to 24 quintals per hectare, but now it has increased to 50 to 60 quintals per hectare," he said. Chouhan expressed satisfaction over the performance of the state government....