The Hindu Business Line : Chidambaram calls for new farm strategy

Coimbatore, Nov. 13 The Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, stressed the need for adoption of a new development strategy for agriculture and for addressing the needs of the farming community.

Delivering the 28th Annual Convocation address at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Mr Chidambaram said though the size of the agricultural economy in the total pie had shown an increase, the share of agriculture was down and “given international experience and India’s record, that share would decline further”.

While agriculture remains an important contributor to the GDP considering that it is the source of livelihood for 50 per cent of the total number of employed persons, the only alternative would be “ becoming nearly self-sufficient in the production of food grains, pulses and oil seeds” to feed the 600 million people.

Small farm-holdings, rain-fed agriculture, stagnation in areas, production and productivity of food grains such as wheat and rice, startling yield gaps between and within States, Mr Chidambaram said were some of the peculiar features of the Indian agricultural economy.

“While these features would be obvious to a discerning observer, the income inequality between persons dependent on agriculture and those on industry or services is bound to increase.”

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