If agri growth rate rises, rural youth won't migrate to cities: Gadkari

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday emphasised the need to increase agriculture growth rate and purchasing power in rural India to prevent migration of rural youth to cities.

Addressing an event here, Gadkari said currently the government's minimum support prices for agriculture crops are way higher then commercial market prices.

"If agriculture growth rate increases then rural youth will not be forced migrate to metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai for livelihood," he said.

According to him, the growth rate in agriculture will lead to increase in purchasing power of rural population.

Gadkari also emphasised the need for more intensive use of bamboo resources in the country, saying bamboo can create employment opportunities and contribute to rural development.

 

He pointed out that the use of bamboo in the energy sector will help India in reducing import of fossils fuels.

Gadkari said bamboo has the potential to be used as an alternative to coal and can also be used in construction.

He said bamboo can also be used to make bio-CNG and charcoal and IITs can be roped in to conduct further research on this with help of special grants from Bamboo Mission.