Budget 2013: Higher agriculture allocation to boost growth

NEW DELHI: For a fast track growth of agriculture, which showed 1.8% growth this year despite bad monsoon, the total plan outlay for agriculture has been increased by 22 per cent from Rs Rs 20,208 crore to 27,049 crore. This will support the new initiatives announced in the budget besides backing the existing programmes which have resulted into record food grain production this year.

“Agriculture contribute 14.1% in the total GDP but still more than 58% of the population rely on farm for livelihood. This booster will help agriculture grow and attain the targeted growth rate of 4%,” said Jaishankar Mishra, an agri-scientist.

The growth in agriculture has become vital as the government is likely to roll out ambitious food security scheme which will need enormous food grains.

“Agriculture needs huge investment from public sector for steady growth. In last 4 years, the private investment has gone up considerable but government’s investment has been stagnant. We need to spruce it up for overall development,” said Ramesh Chand, director, National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NCAP).