By IANS,
New Delhi: Incentives and high-yielding seeds will be given to farmers in 60,000 village clusters each to cultivate oilseeds and pulses in a bid to attain self-sufficiency in the next Five Year Plan that runs from 2012-13 to 2016-17.
The direction in this regard was given to the farm research fraternity and policymakers by the Prime Minister’s Office, as part of the larger mission of ushering in the second Green Revolution under the National Food Security Mission, sources said.
The focus on oilseeds and pulses, where little progress was noticed in improving yields and acreage during the current plan, was the outcome of a meeting chaired by Principal Secretary to Prime Minister T.K.A. Nair with the top brass of related ministries.
“The agriculture-related departments and research institutions were asked to increase the production of pulses and oilseeds by adopting the cluster approach,” said a senior official, adding that 60,000 such areas each for the two set of crops will benefit.
“The view was that the target of 9-9.2 percent growth during the next Five Year Plan will be difficult unless much progress is made in our agriculture sector. Pulses and oilseeds are crucial areas for overall growth and food security,” the official added.
The meeting took note of the fact that even as the current Five Year Plan saw foodgrain production go up by 20 million tonnes, which was the highest ever growth registered by the farm sector, self-sufficiency was still eluding oilseeds and pulses.
“The PMO has also directed the Indian Council for Agriculture Research to develop high-yielding varieties of pulses and oilseeds that can withstand higher temperatures and other abiotic stress factors emanating from climate change,” the official said.
In a meeting of the full Planning Commission last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that against the target of 3 percent farm sector growth during the 11th Plan, the latest estimates had suggested that the actual realisation may be 3.3 percent.
Going forward, he wanted the next plan to achieve at least 4 percent growth in the farm sector output to ensure the income generated gets broad based to reach rural areas and avoid inflationary pressures due to supply-side constraints.