By IANS,
New Delhi : India should focus on integrated farming to sustain the growth rate of four percent in agriculture, experts said here Friday.
“Integrated farming is needed to achieve a sustainable high growth rate,” said noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan at an agriculture leadership summit.
He said livestock was an important part of agriculture, and should be taken care of more effectively to increase farm output and enhance farmers’ income.
Former agriculture minister Sompal said the government should have an independent budget for agriculture, which is currently part of the general budget.
“We have been spending only 1.3 percent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) for several years on agriculture that sustains 65 percent of the country’s population,” Sompal said.
In the last budget, agriculture and allied sectors were allocated Rs.10,074 crore or Rs.100.74 billion.
The two-day summit beginning Friday has been organised by Agriculture Today, a monthly publication of the Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD), a local think-tank on farming and rural development.
India’s GDP or its total market value of all final goods and services produced within a year, was officially estimated at Rs.31,14,452 crore or Rs.31,144.52 billion for 2007-08.
“We can effectively go for integrated farming if the government increases funds allocation for agricultrue,” said Sompal.
Integrated farming refers to agricultural systems that integrate livestock and crop production.
It also denotes sustainable development by balancing food production, profitability, safety, animal welfare, social responsibility and environmental care.
India’s agriculture sector logged a 4.5 percent growth in the last fiscal and is targeted to achieve 4 percent growth during 2007-12.
Agriculture and allied sectors, which saw its growth rate plummeting to 2.5 percent during 2002-07, now contributes around 18 percent to India’s GDP as against 36.4 percent during 1982-83.