'FM agreed to provide ACA for agri from this fiscal'
The government would provide Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to states from the current fiscal to expedite programmes for bridging yield gaps and increasing farm productivity.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: The government would provide Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to states from the current fiscal to expedite programmes for bridging yield gaps and increasing farm productivity.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has agreed to provide ACA through the Supplementary Budget to enable states to expedite implementation of farm sector programmes from the current fiscal, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at the Meeting of National Development Council.
"The states can take advantage of the ACA from this year itself," he said, while underlining the need to raise farm yields to 4 per cent during the 11th Five-Year Plan.
Ahluwalia stressed the need for launching a Food Security Mission to increase production of wheat by 8 million tonnes (MT), rice by 10 MT and pulses by 2 MT by 2011-12.
The country has to work to overcome the problem of technology fatigue, Ahluwalia said, adding the need was to allocate additional resources to pursue result-oriented research projects and bridge the yield gaps.
Ahluwalia said while the unused potential in wheat was only 6 per cent in Punjab, it was as high as 84 per cent in Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, the unused potential in maize was 300 per cent in Assam. In rice, it was over 100 per cent in Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, he said.
These figures, he added, show there was considerable scope for increasing productivity with existing technology to realise the target of 4 per cent growth in agricultural sector in the 11th Plan period.
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