Irrigation the key to farm sector growth: Manmohan

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today that the country needs to sharply increase spending on agriculture, particularly on irrigation and technology, to raise farm output.

Addressing the inaugural session of the fifth Asian regional conference of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage Growth in New Delhi, the prime minister said the growth of India's farm sector, which depends heavily on erratic monsoon rains, has lagged behind the rapid growth in the industrial and services sectors.

India's Eleventh Five Year Plan, which began in 2007, aims to double annual agricultural growth to 4 per cent, and this target is the government's top priority, the prime minister said.

"To achieve this we are sharply increasing public investment in agriculture. The most important area of investment in agriculture relates to water and its efficient use," Singh said.

He added that investment in agricultural technology should be stepped up. "We need to increase investments in agricultural technologies, particularly those related to improved crop practices," he told the irrigation conference.

This year, the worst monsoon in 37 years ravaged India's rice and cane crop, making the world's second-most populous country a big importer of sugar and helping New York raw sugar futures surge to the highest in nearly three decades. The situation was exacerbated by unseasonal floods in some states.