The agricultural sector witnessed significant growth of 3.46 percent during the fiscal year 2016-17 as against the set target of 3.5 percent. During the period under review all major crops including wheat, rice, sugarcane, cotton and maize recorded positive growth in
their respective outputs.
According the Economic Survey 2016-17, released here Thursday, the positive growth was attributed to the greater availability of agriculture inputs like water, agriculture credit and intensive fertilizers off-take. The growth in crops was registered at 3.02 percent against the
negative growth of 4.97 percent during the same period last year. The growth of sub sector of important crops grew by 4.12 percent, other crops and cotton ginning posted growths of 0.12 percent and 5.59 percent, respectively. Other sub sectors of agriculture like livestock, forestry and fishing posted growth of 3.43 percent, 14.49 percent and 1.23 percent, respectively.
The per acre crop production also witnessed increasing trend as maize production increased by 16.30 percent against 6.77 percent of last year. The sugarcane production grew 12.41 percent against 4.23 percent, cotton 7.59 percent against negative growth of 28.96 and
Rice 0.71 percent against negative growth of 2.88 percent of last year. Other crops, which accounted for 11.03 percent in value addition grew by 0.21 percent during current fiscal year against 0.59 percent during the same period last year.
However, during the period under review the production of vegetables and oilseeds posted negative growth of 0.73 percent and 5.93 percent, respectively. Livestock sector witnessed a growth of 3.43 percent compared to 3.36 percent during corresponding period last year. The Fishing sector recorded a growth of 1.23 percent compared to 3.25 percent growth of same period last year.
