'Agriculture growth in India likely to remain flat'

Tuesday, 18 January 2005, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE:Finance Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday hinted the growth rate of the agriculture sector was likely to remain flat for the current fiscal because of deficient monsoons. "The agriculture sector may not see much higher growth due to 13 percent deficiency in the southwest monsoon and 11 percent deficiency in the northeast monsoon last year," Chidambaram told reporters on the sidelines of a function here. Hoping the growth rate in the farm sector would not be negative, he said the government would expect agricultural production to be more or less the same as in the previous year, if not higher. "I will be happy even if the growth rate remains flat, considering we had a deficient rainfall and there was some delay in the onset of the southwest monsoon in a few parts of the country," Chidambaram said. He was speaking after delivering the convocation address at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (Nimhans) here.
Source: IANS
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