Private players can bring 4 % growth in agriculture: Bansal

Chandigarh, Apr 29 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal today said the private sector participation in a big way could help in bringing the growth rate of agriculture up to four per cent.

''If the country wants to achieve the overall growth rate up to ten per cent then the agriculture growth rate should reach four per cent from the stagnated 2.4 per cent and this is to be done through the private endeavour,'' Mr Bansal said in his address at the seminar on 'Strategy for New Growth in Indian Agriculture' here.

He said the government both at the central and the state level could play the role of a facilitator while the industry would have to take initiative in not only tehfood propcessing sector but also in assuring remunerative returns to the farmers so that they could diversify to the cash crops.

He said the Union government wanted private sector participation in a big way for diversification in agriculture in Punjab so that the state could come out of its agrarian crisis.

Mr Bansal pointed out that the Centre had allocated Rs 100 crore for the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) and brought down the rate of interest on farm loan to seven per cent to encourage diversification in Punjab and elsewhere.

Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Planning Board vice chairman and renowned economist S S Johl said there was an emergent need for the counrty to have comprehensive policy on agriculture and its implementation, looking at the new WTO regime and the current crisis. ''It is unfortunate that the country has no policy on agriculture,'' he said.

Mr Johl stated that several documents pertaining to study reports and recommendations were shelved in the government and policy making circles.

He said that Punjab expected some kind of monetary support from the Centre so that the farmers could be facilitated in diversifying from the rotational wheat-paddy sowing.

He said that private sector could play a big role in generating market opportunities for the farmers of Punjab and to establish the infrastructure for food storage, processing and packaging in the state so that the diversification could take place in the region.

The initiative for conract farming on a large scale was also advocated at the seminar which was organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

UNI PS MP PM1917