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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Rural incomes to rise when fewer work for farm: Secretary by Nidhi Nath Srinivas

Rural incomes to rise when fewer work for farm: Secretary by Nidhi Nath Srinivas

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published Published on Jan 12, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 12, 2012

Downplaying the impact of drought in three states on national food production, agriculture and cooperation secretary Prabeer Kumar Basu says the number of people dependent on agriculture has to come down for rural incomes to rise. 

"We have sent our team for an assessment of the situation. None of this will affect overall production because it will be compensated by the rest of India where crop conditions are excellent. We will lose a little bit in coarse grain and oilseeds. But we shall meet our overall production target of 245 million tonnes," he said. 

He expects India to meet this year's production target of 102 million tonnes for rice, 17 million tonnes for coarse grain and exceed 84 million tonnes for wheat. Maharashtra teeters on the brink while two other key states contributing to grain production - Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh - have already declared a drought, potentially exacerbating agrarian distress and adversely impacting food prices. 

Supply of pulses, sugarcane, oilseeds, soyabean and coarse grain such as bajra and jowar, is likely to be hit, with production in the rabi season, or the winter harvest, set to decline by 25% to 40%, compared with the previous year, in the three states. This is on top of the decline seen during the kharif season, or the autumn harvest. 

Even in other parts of India farmers are complaining of declining incomes and poor returns from agriculture as bumper harvests keep prices bearish while the cost of production has sharply increased during the last year. According to the agriculture secretary, the overall decline in net returns from farming can only be stemmed by reducing the number of people dependent on agriculture. 

"Agriculture contributes 14.5% of the GDP and supports 58% of the population. This is unviable. Even if we double productivity it won't solve the problem. Agriculture per se can't solve agriculture's problems. We have to reduce the population dependent on agriculture from 58% to 40% to 20%," he said. The flip side of good production is that the worry over food inflation is over to a large extent. 

"We have surpluses in all food items except milk, meat and some pulses like gram. Overall, if we continue with our thrust on horticulture, dairy and meat, there should be no funny food inflation figures in the near future," Basu said. During the first four years of the 11th Plan, agriculture failed to meet the target of 4%. However, striving for higher growth may be counter-productive if it is not matched by equal increase in infrastructure and overseas market linkages, he said. 

"Even with a growth of 3.2%, we have an excess of production. Farmers are throwing onions and potatoes on the road because there are no takers. So do we need to grow at 4%? Where we need to focus is growth in milk, pulses, oilseeds and meat where supply is less than demand. If we grow at 3.5%, we will be self-sufficient and also have 5-10 million tonnes to spare for exports," he added.


The Economic Times, 12 January, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/rural-incomes-to-rise-when-fewer-work-for-farm-secretary/articleshow/11455689.cms


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