Agriculture and Allied sector grew at the rate 4.1% against the targeted growth rate of 4% during the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012), as per information provided by Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan. Further, as per the provisional estimates released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) on May 30, 2014, the sector is estimated to have grown at 4.7% in 2013-14.
The total number of agricultural workers in the country comprising cultivators and agricultural laborers increased from 234.1 million (127.3 million cultivators and 106.8 million agricultural laborers) in 2001 to 263.1 million (118.8 million cultivators and 144.3 million agricultural laborers) in 2011.
Besides, the government has taken several steps to popularize agriculture by increasing investment, improving farm practices, creating rural infrastructure and ensuring timely delivery of credit, technology and other inputs and providing remunerative prices for farm produce through increased MSPs, higher level of procurement & competitive markets.