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Degradation of natural resources, particularly land and water, posed a major threat to the future production potential, Mr Pawar said.

New Delhi , Oct. 7

THE Government has constituted a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Mr Sharad Pawar, Union Minister for Agriculture, to draw up a detailed five-year perspective plan for reforms in agriculture and allied sectors.

The committee is charged with the responsibility of suggesting calibrated measures to empower rural India and raise the purchasing power of the farming community.

Announcing this while inaugurating the two-day Rural Marketing Summit organised by FICCI here today, Mr Pawar said the committee would have the Finance Minister, the Home Minister, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and some Chief Ministers as members.

The Minister said critical value addition in agriculture was constrained by the long value chain, with the producers' share in the price being barely 30-35 per cent in the case of perishables.

He emphasised the need for improved post-harvest technologies, including retrieving post-harvest losses, estimated at Rs. 50,000 crore annually, and augmenting supplies.

The Government had initiated steps to increase disbursement of agricultural credit and credit disbursement rose from Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 1,05,000 crore last year.

"We plan to double this in the next two years to tackle the basic problem faced by the farming community," Mr Pawar said. The Government was committed to reforms to facilitate large-scale private investment in every step of the value chain.

"We have a two-pronged agenda - pushing through the specific enabling reforms in agriculture and working with the State Governments to convince them to implement relevant reforms at the earliest," Mr Pawar said. The Minister pointed out that serious constraints continued to imperil the agriculture sector.

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