PM sees 8% plus growth

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the environment was now favourable for pushing the growth rate beyond eight per cent.

"We grew at almost seven per cent last year and this year, too, we expect growth to be in excess of seven per cent," he said at the National Conference on Krishi Vigyan Kendras (farm science centres) here.

Singh expressed concern over the slow growth of the agriculture sector which stood, on an average, at just 1.5 per cent a year in the first three years of the current Plan.

He, however, said the government attached the highest importance to achieving a four per cent average annual growth rate in agriculture production. Such a growth was essential to achieve the overall Plan target of eight per cent annual economic growth, he added.

The conference is expected to finalise strategies for faster dissemination of new agriculture technology for boosting productivity of the sector. Farm scientists and concerned officials from all over the country are participating in the two-day meet being presided over by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. The Indian Council of Agriculture Research is spearheading the campaign for evolution and transfer of new and better farm technology.

The prime minister pointed out that the contribution of agriculture to the country's GDP had dropped to 22 per cent but the population dependent on agriculture had not declined. It was about 65 per cent even now, he said.

"The proportion of national income generated by agriculture has gone down drastically while the proportion of population dependent on agriculture has declined marginally over the last 50 years. This is an indication of the growing gap between rural India and urban areas," he said.

He stressed the need for enhancing agriculture output while simultaneously moving people to employment in non-farm sectors like manufacturing or services.

He expressed the hope that agricultural scientists would be able to facilitate a second green revolution.

Pointing out that all advanced agricultural economies were knowledge-based economies, Singh said there was a need to broaden the knowledge base of Indian farmers to enable them to make full use of technology.

Pawar said all the 588 rural districts of the country would have at least one KVK by the end of the current plan. He also announced that farmers' hostels would be opened at the main campuses of all the agricultural universities.

Pawar said diversification of agriculture was the key issue today. The new market demand for organic products and pharma foods had provided new opportunities for high-value agriculture, he added.

He stressed the need to provide an impetus to the livestock and fisheries sectors which played an important role in supplementing farmers' income.

The share of inland fisheries in the country's total fish output had risen to 54 per cent from 29 per cent in 1950 despite relatively low investment in this sector compared to marine fisheries. The potential for further increase in inland fish output was tremendous, Pawar said.

The agriculture minister, however, expressed at the steady decline in factor productivity in agriculture in past 30 years, especially in the input-intensive regions, resulting in reduction in returns to the growers. He attributed it largely to imbalanced use of chemical fertiliser nutrients.