Government earmarks Rs25,000 crore to boost farm output in 4 years

29 May 2007

Mumbai: The government will provide Rs25,000 crore in the next four years to boost agricultural production, prime minister Manmohan Singh said.

"The planning commission and the agriculture ministry will finalise the details of this programme in the next two months," he said at the concluding session of a meeting of the National Development Council.

The prime minister said the less than 2 per cent annual growth in the agriculture sector since the mid-1990s was a cause for concern and called for higher production of agricultural products to check inflation and lift the economy''s sustainable growth rate.

It was important to address this if the broader economy was to achieve 10 per cent growth by 2011-12, he said.

"Reversing the prolonged slowdown in this sector is essential for our goal of inclusive growth, for ensuring that growth benefits all sections of society and all regions of the country," he said.

"The rates of growth of agriculture in the last decade have been poor and is a major cause of rural distress," he told a conference of senior government officials.