PM's panel to draft action plan to boost farm growth

The Prime Minister-appointed Committee on agriculture, which has corporate honchos such as Mukesh Ambani and Jamshyd Godrej as its members, today decided to come up with an operational plan to achieve higher growth in the farm sector through private sector involvement.

The country's average farm growth in the first three years of the 11th Five Year Plan period (2007-12) is only 2.2 per cent, while the target is 4 per cent for the entire period.

"Growth in the agriculture sector is lagging behind as compared to other sectors. We deliberated on the role of trade and industry in enhancing agriculture production to meet the country's food security," Agriculture Secretary P K Basu told reporters after the meeting.

The sub-committee, which met for the first time, decided to prepare a draft operational plan by mid-August taking inputs from industry leaders like Mukesh Ambani, he said.

The sub-committee on 'enhancing agriculture production and food security' has been set up under the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry.

Basu, who is the convener of the sub-committee, said, "We have broadly agreed to identify some of the policies like the market reforms... That are stopping the sector from achieving higher growth and also agreed to identify agri-zones so as to design focused programmes to raise food production."

Godrej and Boyce head Jamshyd Godrej, one of the members of the sub-committee, said, "We discussed how to boost food production for the next ten years, and how the private sector can be involved in enhancing foodgrain production and increase the income of farmers."

Another member, M S Bangha, former CEO of Hindustan Unilever, said, "We are trying to push the priority button in agriculture as food demand is expected to increase with the rise in population and rise in the income of the people."

"Natural resources are scarce, and we need to have an action plan to feed people in the future," he said.