Government says, 5% growth in Agriculture is possible in near future. Concurring with the view of Agriculture Scientist Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, Agriculture secretary P K Basu said in an exclusive interview to our correspondent Vijay Raina that several policy interventions have been taken and good monsoon will only help in achieving this. He expressed confidence that 4 per cent growth in the sector will be achieved this year. Mr. Basu said the investment in the agriculture sector has been almost tripled in the last three years and many initiatives have been taken to increase production and boost productivity. For this, he said hybrid varieties of crops are being introduced. He, elaborated, that the agriculture scientists are working overtime to produce heat resistant varieites of crops. Mr Basu said two such varities in the rice are ready and for wheat, trials are being conducted. In reply to a question on procurement of foodgrains, he said enough capacity addition has been made to make it possible that entire stock is stored properly. Mr Basu said that the government has constitued a high level committee to prepare a strategy for better irrigation facilities for crops after the meeting of the National Development Council on agriculture. He added this is being done to reduce the dependency on monsoon. Mr Basu said a multi pronged strategy is in place to boost pulses production in the country to bridge the gap between the supply and demand. The agriculture secretary said in this kharif, country will have record production of arhar.