India must achieve 4.1 per cent growth in Agriculture in 11th plan

Patna, May 13 (UNI) Former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take steps towards achieving 4.1 per cent growth in agriculture during the 11th five-year plan.

In a letter to the Prime Minister Dr Mishra, also JD(U) Kisan Sabha president, expressed concern over the gradual decline in the contribution of agriculture in Gross Domestic Products (GDP) during the just concluded 10th five-year plan and said a number of steps like the improvement in irrigation facilities should be taken to reverse this trend.

''Nearly 45-50 per cent of the country's total land area is waste and infertile and steps should immediately be taken to make them cultivable'', he suggested.

Identifying agriculture as one of the major areas for generating employment of unskilled labourers, he said all efforts should be made to achieve 4.1 per cent growth during the current plan period.

''The target of ten per cent GDP growth could not be achieved unless steps were taken to boost the country's agro-based economy,'' the former Professor of Economics in Bihar University said and felt that the recommendations of M S Swaminathan and R A Mashelkar committees should be implemented to revamp the agriculture sector which was still the backbone of the Indian economy.

He also suggested that conditions for loans to farmers should be made much more simple and directives should be issued to banks to extend agricultural credit even to marginal farmers expeditioulsly.

UNI