Agriculture sector may see higher growth than projected 2.1%

New Delhi: The country's agriculture sector is expected to grow higher than projected 2.1 per cent growth following better rabi crop prospects, the Agriculture ministry said on Sunday. Last week, Central Statistics Office (CSO) had pegged farm and allied sector growth at 2.1 per cent for 2017-18, much lower than 4.9 per cent achieved in the 2016-17.

The farm sector growth comprises GVA (gross value added) of crops at 60 per cent, livestock 20 per cent and forestry 8.5 per cent and fishing and aquaculture at 5.5 per cent.

"The ministry is optimistic about achieving a high growth rate because the Rabi, 2017 is showing a very good performance in addition to good Kharif, 2017," the Ministry said in an official statement.

The agriculture sector can, therefore, be expected to register a much higher GVA for the year 2017-18, when final estimate figures are released, it added. Justifying the reasons for possible higher growth, the ministry said it is of the opinion that the lower coverage of area by August, 2017 on account of delayed onset of monsoons has caused a poor reflection compared to the actual positive field situation by December, 2017.

However, good rainfall thereafter helped increase in area coverage in accordance with the with kharif targets. "Despite delay in onset of monsoons and relatively poorer rainfall vis-a-vis the previous year, the area coverage under kharif finally rose to 106.55 million hectare against the five year average of 105.86 million hectare," it said.