Article Courtesy : Press Information Bureau
Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh with the President, Ms. Patil
Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh addressed the workshop on “Policy initiatives for promoting partnership between stakeholders in agriculture with particular reference to rainfed/dryland farming" at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi today. Following is the text of Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s speech on the occasion:
“Let me begin by thanking respected Rashtrapatiji for bringing us all together for this workshop. I understand that the workshop is a part of the initiative on agriculture that arose out of the deliberations of the last biennial conference of Governors. We are now at the final stages of formulation of the 12th Five Year Plan and therefore this is an opportune time to discuss how we can strengthen the agricultural sector in all its dimensions. I am sure that the varied and vast experience and expertise that the participants bring to this event will result in very meaningful contributions to the cause of Indian agriculture.
The importance of agriculture to our society and economy has stayed undiminished over the years. A strong agricultural sector is necessary for our food and nutritional security and for the welfare and well being of the very large proportion of our population that is still engaged in farming. Indeed without providing livelihood security to the farmers, we cannot achieve the goal of inclusive growth in its true sense.
I believe that our government has given considerable attention to agriculture in the last seven and a half years or so. We have been able to channel nearly 4.75 lakh crore rupees of bank credit into agriculture and allied sectors. Minimum support prices for key agricultural commodities have been significantly enhanced. Indeed they have been enhanced as never before. We have increased Public investment in agriculture and with the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana given States a strong incentive to increase their involvement and their investment in agriculture. Consequently, allocation for agriculture & allied sectors as a proportion of State Plan expenditure has gone up from 4.88% in 2006-07 to 6.04% in 2010-11.
I am very happy that our agricultural policies have yielded positive result. Gross Capital Formation in agriculture and allied sectors has increased from 13.1% of GDP in agriculture in 2004-05 to 20.1% in 2010-11. Agriculture and allied sectors have grown at an estimated rate of 3.5% during the Eleventh Plan compared to the growth rates of 2.4% and 2.5% during Tenth and Ninth Plans respectively.
Our farmers have done us proud again this year. The 2nd Advance Estimates for 2011-12 indicate that the production of food grains is expected to reach the record level of over 250 million tonnes, exceeding the target for the year by 5 million tonnes. The production of cotton in 2011-12 estimated at 34 million bales is also a new record.
But we still have a long way to go. I would like to repeat here what I had stated on the occasion of the Foundation Day celebrations of the Indian Council of Agricultural research on July 16 last year- the challenges that India's agriculture faces in the coming years remain enormous. As an illustration, to meet the total demand of foodgrains in the year 2020-2021, we need a growth rate of at least 2 percent per annum in food production. This has to be contrasted with the average annual rate of only 1 percent that we achieved in the ten year period 1995-96 to 2004-05. Although food production has regained momentum in the recent years, we cannot afford to be complacent since the demand for horticulture and animal products is increasing very rapidly and this will require some shift of area away from production of foodgrains. Therefore agricultural productivity in foodgrain production has to go up handsomely.