Agriculture sector continued to be cause of concern for the Indian economy showing a meager growth of 2.7 per cent in 2006-07 even as overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as per revised estimate of the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) was put at 9.4 per cent.
This sluggish growth in agriculture assumes significance specially in the wake of leading retailers like Reliance, Metro and others buying directly from the farmers as part of their ‘farm to fork’ policy.
The move by retailers had ruffled the feathers of several groups including the Sangh Parivar outfits like Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Bharat Mazdoor Sangh who took up cudgels for the middlemen holding massive protests in the capital.
However, there was good news on the foodgrains front as the stocks on July one, 2007, touched 23.91 million tones as compared to 19.35 million tones on July one, 2006, showing an increase of 23.57 per cent.
The procurement of wheat showed an increase of 20.3 per cent touching 11.10 million tones upto July one, 2007, in the current marketing year (2007-08) while during the corresponding period last year it was 9.23 million tones, according to official figures.
But, there was a decline of 7.2 per cent in rice procurement in 2006-07 touching 24.90 million tones down from 26.84 million tones in 2005-06.
The inflation was down to 2.97 per cent for week ended October 29, 2007 compared to 5.35 per cent a year ago.
Fiscal deficit decreased 6.1 per cent as per revised estimate of CSO as also revenue deficit by 11.8 per cent over the corresponding period last year.
However, industry and service sector showed satisfactory growth with industry registering 10.9 per cent from 9.6 per cent in 2005-06 while service sector was 11 per cent compared to 9.8 per cent in 2005-06, official statistics showed.
Sri Krishna
