Agrarian crisis due to deficient rainfall: Sinha

There is a "crisis" in agriculture today due to deficient rainfall but comprehensive steps have been taken to help the farmers, government said in the Lok Sabha today.
Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said despite poor rains, production has increased by two per cent because farmers have diversified into areas like fishery and livestock.
Responding to supplementaries, he said to help farmers, agriculture credit has been increased while funds have been made available to enhance irrigation facilities.
Referring to soil health card scheme for the farming community, Sinha said such policies will help farmers increase their yield.
He said the government plans to encourage farmers on their produce, based on exports and imports of agriculture produce.

In his written response, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said a buoyant economic growth was needed to create gainful employment opportunities and reduce the incidence of poverty.
He also said the government has taken various initiatives to accelerate the growth of economy which include fillip to manufacturing and different infrastructure sectors through a variety of schemes, besides higher public investment, reforms and liberalisation of foreign direct investment in selected sectors.
"Fiscal reforms with emphasis on consolidation, expenditure reforms and rationalisation of tax structure, could also contribute to higher growth," he said.