Kolkata, Feb 3 (IANS) External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Sunday said a major thrust in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12) will be on agriculture and the aim would be to achieve a record four percent growth in the sector.
Predicting a 10 percent growth in the 11th Plan, Mukherjee said: “We need to have food security and for that, ensuring agricultural productivity is our foremost challenge.”
“In the last five years, agriculture has grown at an average of two percent per annum. We will have to achieve four percent growth in the 11th plan period,” Mukherjee said while addressing the 176th annual general meeting of Calcutta Chamber of Commerce here.
“By assisting growth in yields and productivity, we would entail creation of better infrastructure in irrigation facilities, including cold chains, development of commodity exchanges and forward markets.”
He said the population pressure on land has to be eased and agro-based food processing promoted by public-private partnerships.