The country's foodgrain production registered an impressive growth of over 30 percent in the last nine years. It went up to 259 million tonnes in 2012-13 from 198.36 million tonnes in 2004-05. This is result of government initiatives like National Food Security Mission, NFSM, and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. While NFSM is area and crop specific scheme, RKVY is a highly flexible mega scheme to incentivise states for investment in agriculture. With the focused interventions under the NFSM supported by other programs and schemes and conducive price policy regime. This resulted in exceeding the 20-million tonne target of additional of food grains in 11th five year plan. The flow of agricultural credit was raised from 86,981 crore rupees in 2003-04 to 5.75 lakh crore in 2012-13. Minimum Support Price of major crops also increased by more than hundred per cent during the period. AIR correspondent reports that the country has become now food surplus and exports of agriculture and allied products increased from 29.8 billion Dollar in 2011-12 to 33.54 billion Dollar in 2012-13.
News On AIR | June 3, 2013 9:45 PM
Foodgrain production increases by 30 % in last 9 years