Union Minister of State for Human Resources Daggubati Purandeswari said that the crisis in agriculture could be mitigated only when the Governments offer long lasting solutions to problems faced by farmers.
The issues concerning them should be promptly addressed and their problems have to be struck at the roots if they were to be saved from the seemingly perennial woes.
If the economy is to achieve the desired growth rate of over eight per cent, due priority must be given to strengthening agriculture.
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Addressing chilli farmers before distributing compensation for the loss incurred due to fire in Sai Surya cold storage in 2011, at Sri Venkateswara Vignana Mandir here on Saturday, Ms. Purandeswari said that the Central and the State Governments were making sincere efforts to alleviate the plight of farmers and a more systematic approach to solving their problems was required to make them a happier lot.
“Agriculture is the engine of growth. We will be ignoring the fact that it is the economy’s backbone at our own peril," she observed.