Economic Survey 2015: Government should invest in farm research, irrigation

NEW DELHI: The government should shift agriculture sector focus to investments in research, irrigation and warehousing in order to boost productivity, the Economic Survey for 2014-15 said.

The survey, tabled in Parliament today, said recommendations of the Shanta Kumar Committee provide useful suggestions for the road-map of food policy. It said efforts should be made to bring states on board for creating a common market for agricultural commodities.

The public expenditure in agriculture is only a fourth of expenditure towards food and fertiliser subsidies as per the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices Kharif Report, 2014-15.

The Economic Survey pointed out that the agriculture and food sector needs huge investments in research, education, extension, irrigation, fertilisers, and laboratories to test soil, water and commodities, warehousing and cold storage.

"Rationalisation of subsidies and better targeting of beneficiaries would generate part of the resources for public investment," it added.

The survey also said that with wide differences in the yields within states, there was ample opportunity to increase production by bridging the yield-gap to the extent feasible within the climatic zone.

India has emerged as a significant agri-exporter in crops such as cotton, rice, meat, oil meals, pepper and sugar. As per the World Trade Organization’s trade statistics, the shares of India’s agricultural exports and imports in world trade in 2013-14 were 2.69 per cent and 1.31 per cent, respectively.

Agricultural exports as a percentage of agricultural GDP have increased from 9.1 per cent in 2008-09 to 14.05 per cent in 2013-14. During the same period, agricultural imports as a percentage of agricultural GDP also increased from 3.94 per cent to 5.5 per cent.