India has to boost grain output

India has to boost production of wheat, rice, pulses and edible oils to check inflation and sustain high economic growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday. Sluggish farm output has prevented India from achieving double-digit economic growth rates and reductions in poverty, especially in rural areas.
Policy makers want to double the growth of farm output to 4 percent by the end of the 2011/12 fiscal year so that Asia's third-largest economy can achieve average annual economic growth of 9 percent over the next five years.
"The recent rise in prices of certain food products has been the result of slow supply response to rising demand. This has been particularly true of wheat, pulses and edible oils," Singh told a conference of senior government officials. "We have had to import many of these products to ensure adequate availability of essential food items," he said
The government planned schemes to help raise output of such items within three years to keep prices in check and ensure adequate supplies for the 1.1 billion populations. Farm Minister Sheared Pawar said efforts must be made to rejuvenate the farm sector, as the country would need about 25 million tonnes of additional foodgrains by the end of 2011-2012. "Oilseed sector's dependence on imports is rising due to inadequate domestic production," Pawar said.
The Prime Minister said that at less then 2 percent per annum, the growth of the agriculture sector since the mid-1990s has been a concern. It was important to address this if the broader economy was to achieve 10 percent 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," Singh said. "The rates of growth of agriculture in the last decade have been poor and are a major cause of rural distress."
While India's economy grew by an average 8.6 percent in the past four years, the benefits have fallen mainly to those living in larger cities and have largely bypassed farmers and their families who account for 60 percent of the population.
Singh's remarks follow a poor showing by his Congress party in recent elections in Utter Prudish State, a key political battleground. Analysts said voters had noted the federal government's failure to spread prosperity beyond the cities. Thousands of farmers have committed suicide in recent years across India's sprawling western and southern plateau because they could not repay loans taken for their crops. "Farming is increasingly becoming an unliveable activity, particularly because of nature of land holdings," Singh said.