India needs a new green revolution: Anand Mahindra

NEW DELHI: Cautioning against getting carried away by "glamorous sectors like IT and e-commerce", Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra today said India needs a new green revolution as income from agriculture is declining.

"There has been particularly two years of bad monsoon. Income from agriculture is declining and we are so happy with glamorous sectors like IT and ecommerce that we easily forget that agriculture is true heartbeat of this nation," he said while speaking at Mahindra Samriddhi India Agri Awards 2015 here this evening.

A majority of Indian population is dependent on agriculture for livelihood, Mahindra added.

This year the government has projected a growth of agriculture and allied sector at 1.1 per cent. The sector is under distress and cases of farmer suicides have been reported in many states.

Lamenting the poor attitude towards agriculture in India, Mahindra said, "We have the world's fourth largest agriculture sector. It employs over 50 per cent of our population and constitutes 14 per cent of our GDP yet six decades after independence agriculture is still not seen as a desirable occupation."

Stressing on the need to give a fillip to the sector, he said, "We have made a lot of progress in agriculture, have benefited from green revolution but we need a new green revolution. I have confidence that this will happen because now we have tools like technology to make it possible."