Agriculture growth higher than non-agriculture sectors since 2006 global financial crisis, says Niti’s Chand

India has achieved the highest growth rate of 5 per cent in the agriculture sector during the seven years from 2016-17 to 2022-23, Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand said on Saturday and credited the government’s focus on the farm sector in the development strategies.

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Addressing the International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE) in Delhi, Chand said that India has achieved the highest growth rate in GDP agriculture in the world in the last 10 years, according to the World Bank data. He also highlighted that the share of agriculture in the world GDP has risen from 3.2 per cent in 2006 to 4.3 per cent in recent years.

He also said since the global financial crisis in 2006-07, agriculture has shown higher growth than non-agriculture sectors at the global level.

Stressing that agricultural growth in the last 15 years has saved many countries from economic collapse, he said the onus of remunerative employment for the large workforce still remains on agriculture due to “poor record of industry” in pulling the labour force out of farm sector.

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Chand also said that the current challenges necessitate a fresh appreciation of the role of agriculture in economic and human development and a renewed focus on agriculture at all levels.