September 9, 2011

The budget for agriculture in India has increased by three-fold to US$3.71 billion compared to the past four financial years.

According to Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat, allocation for the agriculture ministry has considerably increased from US$1.199 million in 2007-08 to US$3.692 billion in 2011-12, facilitating more investment in agriculture sector.

The minister added that farm sector has registered 3.2% growth in the first four years of the 11th five year plan (2007-12), despite severe drought in 2009 and in some states in 2010.

This rate is higher compared to the growth rate of 2.5% for both the ninth and 10th five year plans as per revised estimates of GDP (a 2004-05 prices) released by the Central Statistics Office, the growth in agriculture and allied sectors is estimated at 6.6% for 2010-11, which is the highest achieved growth rate during the last six years, he said.

Rawat said that barring three states (Goa, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh), others have formulated their respective State Agriculture Plans (SAPs) to enhance allocation to the sector.

The minister added that the allocation to the agriculture sector by all the states was US$1.263 billion in 2004-05, which rose to US$4.779 billion in the 2010-11. This excludes allocations made to the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY), Rawat said.