The government's financial policy has to change in favour of agriculture, a top Nabard official has said, and expressed concern over the youth shunning farm jobs and migrating to urban areas.
"We are far better than the West on the agriculture front, but the government's financial policy has yet to change in favour of agriculture," Nabard Chief General Manager K Y Raghavulu said yesterday.
He was speaking at a seminar on 'Finance to the agriculture sector by the institutional agencies and recoveries' here.
In his key note address, Raghavulu touched upon the issues like declining share of agriculture in the GDP and the problems being faced by the key sector, which still sustains over 60 per cent India's population.
The Nabard official said loans have to be liberalised for the tenant farmers, who can not afford to mortgage anything except their gold and jewellery.
Agriculture has become a kind of "disgrace" for the youth, who prefers to work in offices in industries, he said.
Majority of farm labour today is aged past 45 and youth are looking for jobs in sectors like software. Labour cost has increased adding to the farmers' miseries, he said.
Raghavulu also discussed the Nabard policy for the sanction of loans to small and marginal farmers.
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