Bhubaneswar, March 15: Frequent natural calamities and erratic rains are responsible for slow agricultural growth rate in Odisha, said eminent agriculturist Dr Ashok Gulati.
Speaking at the second lecture of Odisha Knowledge Hub lecture series here , Dr Gulati suggested to focus on infrastructural development like irrigation, rural roads, more power to agriculture sector and establishment of value chain for cereal and fruit-products in the State for achieving higher growth rate in agriculture.
He elaborated the link between agriculture growth and poverty reduction in national and international contexts.
He opined that higher growth rate in agriculture leads to faster rate of poverty reduction.
Comparing nation’s economy with a pyramid, the eminent agriculturist suggested putting agriculture sector at the base, manufacturing at the middle and service sector at the top the pyramid.
Such an approach would lead to sustainable development, he added.
He suggested that though Agriculture is a State subject, Central government need to trigger and engineer the reform agenda in agriculture sector.
The expert cited the example of the impact of centrally engineered Green and White revolution on Indian economy and strongly advocated for centrally sponsored active agenda for reform in this basic sector of the economy that cater to the food and nutrition security.
He opined that the Indian agriculture has the potential to grow at 5 pc per annum in the present context against which the present growth rate varied from 3.6 pc to 4 pc per annum in real terms.
Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan said that the lecture series has been launched to update the State functionaries with the newly emerging ideas and best practices at the national and international levels in the matters of public policy and developmental administration.
