India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the agricultural sector is likely to grow at about 3.5 per cent per annum during the eleventh five-year plan and added that the growth must be scaled up to 4 per cent.

Dr. Singh also said that is aiming to double the spending on research and development in the agriculture sector by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan from one per cent of gross domestic produce (GDP) in the country.

“It now looks as if agricultural growth is likely to be about 3.5% per annum during the 11th Five-Year Plan, which is much better than in the 10th Plan. This is a commendable achievement but we must improve upon it in the 12th Plan to reach 4 per cent or even higher,” he said.

Dr. Singh was speaking at the Golden Jubilee Convocation of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). The agricultural sector recorded a growth rate of 2.5 per cent during the 10th Plan period.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had recently claimed that the country’s total food grain production could reach a record level of 250 million tonnes in 2011-12. The 250 million tones figure is about five million tones higher than the official annual target for the fiscal. He also pointed out that the production of cotton in 2011-12 was estimated to be 34 million bales, which is the highest level ever.