PM calls for greater farm investment

P rime Minister Manmohan Singh today said reversing the decline in investment in agriculture was one of the priorities of the government.

The other priorities included greater flow of credit to farmers, higher public investment in irrigation and wasteland development, more funds for farm research and extension and creation of a single market for farm produce.

Singh was speaking after inaugurating the Delhi office of the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) at the National Agriculture Science Centre, near the Pusa institute.

An important aspect of the proposal on agriculture is to ensure food and nutritional security by augmenting income and employment. Singh said the government would devote Rs 40,000 crore to social programmes aimed at alleviating poverty, generating employment and ensuring food and health security.

The Planning Commission was considering the setting up of a food and nutrition security monitoring body to function as a think tank, he revealed.

The national commission on horticulture, which will be launched soon, would help usher in the second green revolution based on horticultural crops. He laid stress on greater cooperation between south Asian nations in these areas.

The Prime Minister referred to the emergence of the private sector in agricultural research and infrastructure build-up and said this had posed a new challenge for food policy makers.

The private investment in biotechnology, developing and marketing seeds, power, irrigation in other fields was increasing. "How do we serve public interest, while creating incentives for private investment?" This was a challenge for farm policy planners, he said.