Farm sector grows by 2.8% in April-June
Agriculture and allied sectors grew by 2.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2010-11 fiscal, higher than 1.9 per cent in the same period in 2009.
In 2009-10 fiscal, the agriculture and allied sector had recorded the lowest growth in five years, at 0.2 per cent, due to widespread drought that affected almost half of the country. Foodgrain production had declined by 16 million tonnes to 218.2 million tonnes.
While compiling the farm GDP during the April-June quarter of this fiscal, the government has used the performance of agriculture and allied activities during the rabi season, which ended June 2010.
According to the official data, cereal production declined by 2.2 per cent to 104.07 million tonnes in the rabi season in 2010, against 106.45 million tonnes in the year-ago period.
Whereas pulses output showed an increase of 4.2 per cent to 10.29 million tonnes from 9.88 million tonnes in the review period.
Cotton production grew by 7.5 per cent to 23.93 million bales of 170 kg each, while sugarcane output declined by 2.6 per cent to 277 million tonnes from the year-ago period.
The government has set a target of 4 per cent agriculture growth per annum in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12).
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