Need to ensure agriculture grows in tandem: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today initiated the process of creating the road map for achieving the dual goals related to food security as well as the 'urgent need' to make farming a viable proposition, beginning with Andhra Pradesh.

Chairing the first-ever joint review of problems related to agriculture and allied sector in Andhra, the Prime Minister called for bridging inter-regional gaps in crop yields, timely completion of irrigation projects, efficient water management, and special focus on rainfed areas, which would account for 40% of the total farm land after the completion of all the projects in the state.

"We need to work hard to ensure that the sector grows in tandem with the rest of economy," Singh said while emphasising the measures to achieve the Eleventh Plan target of 4% agriculture growth.

In a sweeping suggestion to the vexed problem of poor access to institutional credit in the agriculture sector, Singh told chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy to bring the entire farming community in the state under the ongoing financial inclusion programme by working closely with the Reserve Bank of India. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar raised his concern saying despite the increase in volume of credit flow, the number of farm loan accounts availing of credit was coming down significantly.

While the number of such loan accounts at the national level declined to 39.7 million in 2006-07 from 41.3 million in 2004-05, in Andhra, this number was down to 4.8 million from 6.8 million during the same period. This indicates that a large number of farmers are turning defaulters and are consequently denied access to institutional credit.

A significant outcome of today's meet was that the state government has agreed to work on specific measures that need to be implemented in the sector for increasing the output through a resolution. This also includes the state's  targets under the food security mission being launched by the Centre.

On the food security front, the state will have to additionally produce 3 million tonne of rice, 3.5 lakh tonne of pulses, 5 lakh tonne of oil seeds, 3.2 million tonne of milk, 3 lakh tonne of meat, inland production of 1.6 million tonne of fish among others during the Eleventh Plan, as committed.

The state government will have to prepare state and district level plans sensitive to local conditions and requirements to execute the schemes targeting production and productivity improvement in agriculture and maintain a baseline share of agriculture and allied sector in the state plan of expenditure. On its part, the Centre will bear a share beyond the baseline expenditure as a grant from the newly created Rs 25,000 crore Additional Central Assistance.

Speaking to the media after the review of the agriculture sector, Pawar said they hoped to see the agriculture plans along with detailed project reports and schemes of the state government ready in the next three months.

The ten point 'Andhra Pradesh Resolution' also includes the establishment of post-harvest management infrastructure and marketing facilities for horticulture produce under which it has been decided that the financial closure on the public-private partnership initiatives for the terminal marketing complexes at Hyderabad, Tirupati and Vishakhapatnam be in place by March 2008. The Centre would forward a project proposal worth about Rs 400 crore in this regard to the World Bank in the meantime.

"With the road map that we are creating to increase the agriculture production we want to restore India's position in terms of food security in the coming years," Pawar said stating that the country needed an additional production of 25 million tonne of foodgrains by the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Karnataka next week followed by Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar. Pawar said they would complete the review in all the five states by August 10, before the commencement of the Parliament session.