Agriculture growth target at 4% for 12th Plan: Montek Singh Ahluwalia

The Planning Commission today said the annual agriculture growth target for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) would be set at 4% as it was in the previous two plans.

The Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia also said, "During the current five year plan (2007-12) we are likely to achieve average farm growth of about 3.5%, which would be little lower than targeted 4%."

Ahluwalia who was conferred a doctorate degree of science by Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) here, stressed on the need for more investment in agriculture research.

"The investment in farm research should be 2 per cent of agriculture gross domestic product (GDP) which ranges from 0.5-0.6% at present," he said.

Ahluwalia also expressed concerns over relatively lower agriculture yields in India compared to the developed world. He pointed out that production could be increased only by reducing knowledge deficit.

The government expects the agriculture sector growth output during 2010-11 at over 6%, which is the highest in the Eleventh Plan.

The farm growth is significant in the back drop of high food prices in the country. The performance of the farm sector was dismal in the previous fiscal as the growth was just 0.2% against the annual average target of 4% in the 11th Plan (2007-12), on account of widespread drought.

In the first year of the 11th Plan, the farm growth was recorded at 4.7%, which slowed down to 1.6% in 2008-09.

Besides, the annual average farm growth during the 10th Plan (2002-07) also missed the 4% target, and grew instead at the rate of 2.13%.

The deceleration in agriculture growth, which began in the Ninth Plan (1997-02) period, has become a major area of concern as half of country's population derives greater part of their income from agriculture.

The annual average farm growth which was 4.72% in 8th Plan (1992-97), slowed down to 2.44% in 9th Plan and further to 2.13% in 10th Plan period.