Farm exports are must for India: Pant

Agricultural exports are imperative for India as they support and boost the rural economy, raising the standard of living of the majority of Indian population, K C Pant, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, who is visiting the US, said in Washington on Monday.

India's insistence on abolition of farm subsidies by the EU and US, which was among the reasons for the breakdown of the WTO talks, put the Indian stand in a logical new light before an audience unaccustomed to hearing the Indian viewpoint, Pant, who also chairs the Prime Minister's Task Force on Infrastructure, said, addressing the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a US think-tank.

Pant said from the point of view of poverty eradication and for providing a broad-based market for industrial goods and services, India's agriculture will have to grow by at least four per cent per annum over the next decade.

Fortunately, he said, expert opinion suggests that such growth rates are well within the realms of the feasible.

"Unfortunately, however, our estimates show that domestic demand for agricultural products is unlikely to grow at very much more than three per cent annually," he said.

India was faced with the prospect of a growing imbalance between supply and demand for agricultural products, he said.

The heart of the problem in realising India's agricultural potential, Pant emphasised, lies in market access.

"I would like to point out that our position on agriculture (at WTO) has nothing to do with gaining tactical advantage, but emanates from our core development strategy for providing employment to our people and eradicating poverty from our country.

Trade issues impeding India's development efforts, said Pant, were not confined to agriculture. "In the case of manufacture, for example, tariff peaks and escalations on goods which are primary product-intensive limit the extent of value-addition that can be made within India."