HT Correspondent
Varanasi, January 6
DIRECTOR GENERAL of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) Dr. Mangla Rai said that there was an urgent need to increase investment in agriculture sector to counter the challenges of growing population and shrinking natural resources.
Talking to media persons here on Saturday, Dr. Mangla Rai, who was here to participate in BHU international alumni meet, said that there was a decline in investment in agricultural over the last 26 years.
“There was an investment of 4.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) of the country in agriculture sector in the year 1980, but the same investment decreased to 1.4 to 1.5 per cent in 2006,” he said.
Dr. Rai said India has got 17 per cent population, 4.2 per cent water and only 2.3 per cent land of the entire world. He said that there was a deficiency of sulfur and zinc in more than 50 per cent agricultural land in the country.
Dr Rai said, “We harvest only 29 per cent of rainwater.” He further added that the use efficiency of water was only 40 per cent in India whereas use efficiency of water was 90 per cent in Israel. “If we increase the use efficiency of water by 10 per cent then we could get 40 million tonne additional food production.”
He said that the total population of world was estimated to be around 11 trillion by the year 2050 and that of India would be more than 1.5 trillion. He said that there was an urgent need to ensure a double fold increase in food production.
He said, “Around 57 per cent population of our country is dependent on agriculture, but there was only 0.2 per cent increase in job opportunities in rural parts of the country.”
(Chronicle note: Please read billion instead of trillion in last two paragraphs)