More measures to help farmers soon: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the government will soon come out with measures to improve the conditions of farmers, and hoped that the rate of poverty can be reduced to single digit within a decade.

"In the coming weeks, we plan to take further steps to improve the condition of farmers," Singh said in his address at the All India Congress Committee session here.

It has been after a long gap that country has achieved an average agriculture growth rate of 4% in the last three years, he said adding it would be his government's endeavour to maintain the growth rate in the future.

Singh said the overall economic growth has averaged 9% per annum in the last three years, and "I am confident if we continue to keep the nation on this growth path, it will be possible to reduce poverty to single digit within the next decade."

The 11th Plan aims to reduce the poverty rate from 28% to 18%. Currently, the country has 28 crore people living below poverty line.

Sharing the concern of his partymen over high prices of essential commodities, Singh said the government has little control on global factors including a sharp increase in prices of crude oil.

"...We must keep in mind that global prices of basic food commodities have seen a rapid rise for a variety of factors. We do not have any control on these factors," he said.

The wholesale price index, he said, was the lowest in the last 20 years. However, the government would continue efforts to ensure that essential food items are available to the poor at reasonable prices, the Prime Minister said.