With Maharashtra reeling under successive droughts and agrarian crisis, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said 25 per cent of the state's population needs to migrate to industry to make farming a viable vocation.
At present, 55 per cent of state's population depends on agriculture for livelihood when the sector can support only 30 per cent of the people, he said.
"If we get the excess 20-25 per cent into industrial sector, agriculture will become viable as the number of people dependent on the activity reduces," Fadnavis said, after laying foundation of the Rs 250-crore Yogayatan Port on the north-eastern fringe of the city.
Maharashtra has been witnessing distress in the farm sector for over a decade now, with some pockets of Vidarbha and Marathwada becoming infamous for farmer suicides. This year's drought has aggravated the crisis.
Fadnavis said his government has laid a special focus on the ports along with attempt to attract investment into the state in diverse sectors like auto, textiles, aviation, etc.
Without naming Gujarat, Fadnavis said other states adopted this policy before Maharashtra and surged ahead.
Citing the port projects cleared by his government, he said for the first time in over three decades Maharashtra has received a major port in the form of the JNPT's satellite port project off Dahanu coast.
The government has also taken steps to improve port connectivity such as formation of special purpose vehicles to establish rail connectivity between ports of Jaigad and Dighi and the Konkan Railway.
