Farm sector can maintain 4% growth for a decade: Niti Aayog's Ramesh Chand

India's agriculture sector can easily maintain a 4 per cent growth rate over the next 10 years, and the country needs to enhance its warehouse infrastructure, Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand said on Thursday.

Addressing an event organised by industry body PHDCCI, Chand said agricultural products' demand will grow at 2.5 per cent.

"So, I feel that we can easily assume, easily maintain this 4 per cent growth in the agriculture sector in the next 10 years," he noted.

India's agriculture sector recorded a growth rate of 3.7 per cent during the first quarter of 2025-26.

"But our agricultural products' demand is not rising at that rate. So, either use these products for industry or tap the export market. I feel tapping the export market is a much better option," Chand added.

Warehousing requirements for rice and wheat are not different, but in the case of maize, it is different, he said.

Chand noted that regulations are important in influencing investment decisions in warehousing, if the law of the land is that you can not store more than a certain quantity.

"After we did not succeed in implementing three farm laws, the need to invoke the Essential Commodities Act has now been lesser and lesser," he pointed out.

The member also said that contrary to public perception, food losses (agricultural commodities loss) are not high in India.

"I shared that in the UN conference, that in milk, our loss is only 0.5 per cent, and that is the most perishable commodity anyway," he pointed out.

Noting that a large component of the current food losses is preventable, Chand said that there is a big incentive for investment in warehouses, as the more you prevent the losses, the higher the incentive for making an investment in warehouses.

Chand also emphasised that warehousing is needed to sustain buffer stocks, along with maintaining inter-year and intra-year price stability of food, as it constitutes a major portion of household consumption expenditure.

India has emerged as the world's second-largest producer of agricultural commodities and the eighth-largest exporter, with food grain output touching a record 354 million tonnes in 2024-25.

As production is set to rise to nearly 368 million tonnes by 2030-31, strengthening scientific storage and post-harvest systems is a necessity for safeguarding food security, boosting farmer incomes, and cutting avoidable losses.