The country is likely to achieve a 3.5% farm sector growth rate during 2025-26, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Monday
“Globally, agriculture growth of 1.5-2% is considered to be good. India is achieving at least 3-3.5% growth rate. We expect to achieve 3-3.5% growth even in the next year (2025-26),” Chouhan said while announcing a major farmers outreach programme to educate farmers about the new farm practices prior to the forthcoming kharif season.
Gross value added (GVA) in agriculture and allied sectors grew by robust 3.8% (second advance estimates) in FY25, as compared with 1.4% in FY24
Chouhan said for boosting kharif production through introduction of new farm technologies, a total of 2170 team comprising of 3749 agricultural scientists from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and personnel associated with 2980 krishi vigyan kendras would be visiting 65,000 villages across 723 districts during May 29 – June 12.
The aim of the fortnight long campaign is to educate growers about available farm practices suitable for the specific agro-climatic zones.
“The aim of the campaign would be to reach over 1.30 crore farmers in this season directly and bridge the gap between the lab and field so that farmers get to know new farm practices which would reduce cost of production and make agriculture remunerative,” Chouhan said.
Following the special campaign for the forthcoming kharif season, a similar campaign will be initiated in the rabi season to boost productivity and reduce cost of the production for the farmers.
He acknowledged that there has been a gap between farm practices and technologies developed by ICAR institutes and farmers taking benefits of such know-how to boost productivity and income.
While addressing the states about their participation in the campaign, Chouhan termed the Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan a significant step toward increasing agricultural productivity. “
Chouhan said that while foodgrains production has been increasing steadily while meeting the growing need of domestic consumption, “our vision is to make India the food basket of the world, one day,”.
Given the forecast of ‘above normal’ monsoon rainfall, the government has set a record target of 354.64 million tonne (MT) for food grains production in the 2025-26 crop year (July-June).
This is an increase of 4% from the target for the current (2024-25) crop year, which itself is an all-time high
Reversal of Indus Water Treaty is historic correction
Later speaking to farmers associations from the northern region, Chouhan defended the government’s suspension of the Indus Water Treaty. He called the treaty an historic injustice inflicted on the Indian farmers.
Terming the reversal of treaty as historic correction, Chouhan stated “in 1960, Pandit Nehru handed over more than 80% of the Indus River’s water to Pakistan along with Rs 83 crore, which today amounts to Rs 5,500 crore. This was done despite opposition from India’s water experts.”