New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday announced a Rs 25,000 crore plan for boosting farm sector growth by addressing the needs at the grass-root level.
"The Centre will commit funds if states maintain their baseline levels of expenditure. This will ensure greater public investment in agriculture," PTI quoted him as saying in his concluding remarks at the 53rd meeting of the National Development Council (NDC).
He also said that the Centre will commit over Rs 25,000 crore in the coming four years and that the Planning Commission and the Agriculture Ministry will finalise details of this programme in the next two months.
The plan seeks to encourage states to come up with localised solutions for problems faced by the agriculture sector.
“Besides, a Food Security Mission would be announced to raise the production of wheat, rice and pulses and reduce the country's dependence on imports of basic commodities,” Prime Minister said.
Earlier, the NDC adopted a resolution to raise wheat production by eight million tons, rice by ten MT and pulses by two MT over the next four years.
Prime Minister said that the four per cent target growth of agriculture and allied activities was achievable "if we are willing to take tough decisions and follow it up with actions".
Singh asked Finance Minister P Chidambaram to ensure all eligible farmers are covered under institutional credit mechanism in the next four years.
Commenting on food security, the Prime Minister said a mission would be launched in the coming months, which would reduce country's dependence on imports of basic commodities such as rice and wheat.
(With agency inputs)
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