‘Need 5% annual growth in agri’: says minister during agriculture universities conference

NEW DELHI: Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday said India requires a five per cent annual growth rate in agriculture and allied sectors to become a developed nation by 2047. Chouhan highlighted that foodgrain is grown on 93 per cent of farmland, but the growth is just 1.5 per cent.

"We are working towards bridging the yield gap in crops and achieving a national average yield... If we have to make India a developed nation by 2047, agriculture and allied sectors have to grow at 5 per cent annually," he said.

He was speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual conference of Vice Chancellors of Agricultural Universities and Directors of ICAR Institutes .

Research by agricultural institutes

The minister expressed confidence that the five per cent annual growth rate is achievable, emphasising that various agricultural institutes play a key role in this endeavour. "Research plays a very important role in increasing agricultural production and reducing costs. Our target is to maintain an annual agricultural growth rate of 5 per cent. Our effort is that all the research institutions work in one direction to achieve the goals," he said.

Chouhan noted that the agriculture and allied sector must achieve USD 1 trillion for India to become a USD 5 trillion economy. He also stressed the need to enhance farm exports to 20 per cent from the current level of six per cent. On research and development, the minister said that currently, 0.4 per cent of agriculture GDP is invested in innovation and research.

"We also discussed how to raise the investment to one per cent," he added. He pitched for better utilisation of natural resources for agriculture as land holdings are expected to decline to 0.6 hectare by 2047 from the current level of 1.18 hectare.