The Ministry of Agriculture has said that it had expected to register a much higher gross value added (GVA) in 2017-18. It’s response came on Sunday after the Central Statistics Office (CSO) advance estimates of the GVA of the Ministry of Agriculture has been estimated at 2.1 percent in 2017-18 as compared to 4.9 percent in 2016-17.
In a press statement, the Ministry 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.
“The estimate also indicates that despite a lower or negative share of crop sector in the GVA computation of Agriculture, based on August 2017 status the growth rate still worked out to 2.1 per cent. This is a manifestation of higher growth rates in livestock and fishery sectors, the other two components. As seen thus, even by August, 2017 the estimated production of livestock and fishery was very positive and by December, crop the dominant sector has bounced back. If this amended and actual field situation are taken into account in computation of the GVA for Agriculture sector as a whole, its growth rate can be estimated to be much higher than the Advance Estimate of 2.1 per cent,” the Ministry said in a Press statement.
In totality, the crop segment in 2017-18 is expected to compare more favourably than the five year average of area coverage. Further, the Ministry expects to consolidate the record production achieved during the year 2016-17, by focusing on realising higher productivity.
The credit made available for the year 2017-18 is as high as Rs 10 lakh crore compared to Rs 9 lakh crore in the year 2016-17. The Ministry has been pursing with all the State Governments to enhance the availability of credit to the farmers which is a critical input for achieving higher productivity.
“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. By January 5, 2018 the area coverage under Rabi is 58.6 million ha., which is a very good progress. Considering that the Rabi sowing continues upto first week of February, the total area under crops and resultant production will be very good,” it said.
The area coverage under different crops in Kharif as of August, 2017 was below that of the previous year on account of delay in onset of monsoons in some parts of the country. However, good rainfall thereafter helped the Ministry in increasing the area coverage in accordance with Kharif targets. “In case of horticulture, similar positive trend in respect of both area coverage and production is seen as of December, 2017. The area coverage as per first advance Estimate under fruits and vegetables stands at 24.92 million ha., as against the previous year final of 24.85 million ha. Concomitantly, the horticulture output as per first advance Estimate is 305.4 million tonnes compared to 300.6 million tonnes in the previous year (2016-17),” it said.