PM asks AP to go for RBI's financial inclusion prog

Hyderabad, July 31 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today urged the Andhra Pradesh Government to go for financial inclusion programme with the Reserve Bank of India and make best use of the Rs 25,000 crore additional Central assistance announced in the last National Development Council meeting to increase productivity of agriculture and related activities, besides addressing problems of peasants in rain-fed areas.

Reviewing the progress made by Andhra Pradesh in agriculture sector along with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, he noted, ''While the state accepted the Vaidyanathan Committee recommendations, the cooperative system accounted for just about ten per cent of total credit.

A large number of farmers (more than 50 per cent) are defaulters and hence cannot access institutional credit.

''The state can work with the RBI for covering the entire state under financial inclusion programme,'' he said.

The Prime Minister, who started his visit to various states from Andhra Pradesh in a bid to boost agriculture growth in the XI Plan period to over four per cent, asked the state to make focused decentralised district plans to close yield gaps and increase farm livelihoods through inter-departmental approach to make farming viable.

He expressed concern over stagnation in agriculutre growth in the last decade, both in yields (rice for example) and in total output.

Referring to inter-regional gaps in yields and productivity, the Prime Minister lamented that south Telangana was the most backward region with a high yield gap.

Similarly, north coastal Andhra, which had a relatively high rainfall, had low yields in rice and sugarcane.

''The comparison with the delta area is quite stark. North Telangana exhibits poor performance in cotton and jowar.'' Dr Manmohan Singh noted with satisfaction the state's emphasis on expanding irrigation facilities on a massive scale and asked it to complete them on time and ensure efficient water utilisation and long-term sustainable management of these projects through the local community.

As almost 40 per cent of the state would still be rain-fed even after completion of these irrigation projects, the Prime Minister wanted the state to promote pastrolism and pisiculture.

Observing the state had good track record in promoting fisheries, he felt the potential for inland fisheries can certainly be exploited better.

He also took an account of a large number of vacancies in the state agricultural extension set up.

UNI