Soz wants PC to fix 5 per cent farm growth target in 11th plan

Hyderabad, Oct 19 (UNI) Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz today emphasised that Planning Commission must target agricultural growth of five per cent to achieve a GDP growth of ten per cent during the 11th Plan period as envisaged by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Responding to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's call to achieve four per cent growth in agriculture sector for realising ten per cent GDP growth, Prof Soz said, ''We should target not just four per cent agricultural growth but five per cent during the 11th plan.'' Irrigation has been given the right focus now through the 'Bharat Nirman' programme, except during the sixth Plan period when the agricultural growth was more than the GDP growth, Prof Soz, who inaugurated the Krishna Godavari Bhavan of the Central Water Commission here, added.

Earlier, Dr Rajasekhara Reddy, who participated as chief guest, said in an effort to boost agricultural production in the state, which had faced drought for 18 years in the last 20 years, 76 lakh acres of land would be brought under irrigation by his Government.

The state Government, which had spend Rs 10000 crore in the first two years and allocated another Rs 10,000 crore for the sector this year, would spend Rs 30,000 crore more in the subsequent two years, Dr Reddy said.

The Prime Minister and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi were appreciative of the irrigation intiative in Andhra Pradesh and wanted other states to emulate Andhra Pradesh, he said, acknowledging that without the Centre's support the ''Jalayagnam' project would not be possible.

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