Agri sector needs an investment of Rs 5 lakh crore : Pawar

New Delhi, Aug 24 (UNI) The Government today said that out of the projected 8-10 per cent GDP growth at least half of it should come from agriculture sector to reduce the ongoing distress and economic hardships faced by farmers.

Replying to a 3-day-long debate in the Rajya Sabha on farmers' suicides, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that to achieve the required growth, the sector required an investment of Rs 500,000 crore -- 14-15 per cent of the GDP.

To bail out the farmers from economic hardships, the Minister said the Government was taking every measure to improve the economic condition of the farmers including provision of credit at the lowest rate of interest, good quality seeds and increasing minimum support price (MSP) for procurement of their produce.

He said that ''constitutionally, the agriculture is a State subject, but we cannot ignore this and extend all possible help to States meant for the benefit of the farmers. And many times, we make supplementary payment to them.'' He said unlike other industrial sectors, 90 per cent investment in agricultural sector was by the farmers in the shape of loan they got from banks, which was considered as private sector investment.

Mr Pawar said that unless electricity reached villages farmers would not be able to produce properly as 60 per cent of the land was dependent on nature and 40 per cent on irrigation. Until the irrigation projects were taken care of, the situation could not change.

He said presently, 1,248 projects were incomplete and some had even started 20 years ago with estimated cost of Rs 20 crore and the cost escalation had gone beyond Rs 200 crore today.

Mr Pawar said the Chief Ministers of the States had been asked to complete the irrigation projects to give relief to farm sector.

Production was decreasing because of shortage of micro-nutrients, chemicals and fertiliser was used less and the balance was not being maintained which resulted in destruction of agricultural land.

He suggested the farmers to go for organic farming which improves the texture of the land.

More than 6,000 scientists were working in ICAR and some on crop-wise sector and they introduced 240 varieties in a year and to take benefit of that, States' extension wing was weak.

Mr Pawar suggested to increase production using new varieties of seeds. Transgenic seeds needed many years to develop. US, China and Mexico had been using 80 to 90 per cent of Bt cotton seeds and yielding good crops as this seed increased production and needed less spraying, if the land was well irrigated.

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