Hyderabad, June 15: For the revival of agriculture sector, Minister for Agriculture and production,   Ghulam Hassan Mir has stressed for greater investment in Agriculture and its allied sectors to restrict the decline of growth rate of food grains in the country which will help to reduce food grain imports at higher price.
 The Minister, according to an official statement, was speaking today at 3-day Agro Tech 2010 conference at Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh which was organized by Centre for Agriculture and Rural development (CARD) in association with ASSCOHAM and Government of Andhra Pradesh.
 Minister for Marketing of Andhra Pradesh,   Damdhur, Vice Chancellor of Agriculture University of Andhra Pradesh, Former Agriculture Minister and Kissan Leader of the Andhra Pradesh and senior officers  of CARD  also participated in the event.
 The Minister said that due to the low investment in Agriculture sector, the growth rate of food grains have declined and the per capita availability of food grains decreased with population bloom in the country. He said investment in this sector including irrigation, transport, communication and farm research will help in making the country self sufficient in food grains besides their should be integrated development in the rural areas.
 For making Agriculture Profitable enterprise, the Minister said that there is a need for periodic revision of the procurement prices for farm produce and added that this will help the farmers to meet the increasing expenses of farm inputs and ensure remunerative income to the community. He also stressed for imposition of quantitative restrictions on import of agriculture products to control the prices of farm produce.
 The Minister said to offset the rising cost of cultivation and ensure the livelihood of farmers, the subsidy and concessions to agriculture sector is to be restored again to make it remunerative. He further said that the loans should be made available to the farmers on the low interest rate to encourage to them.
   Mir asked the farmers for adopting modern technologies besides cultivating high yielding varieties to make agricultural activities profitable.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST