Key Facts About...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Congress party-led ruling coalition will present the 2008 Union Budget on Friday, its last full one before general elections due by May next year, and is expected to focus on the country's ailing farm sector. Following are some facts about agriculture in India. OVERVIEW: - India's has 329 million hectares of land, of which 190 million hectares are used for agriculture with 141 million hectares under crops. - The net irrigated area is 57 million hectares. - Eighty per cent of farmers work landholdings of less than one hectare. - Total foodgrain output is seen at 219.3 million tonnes in the crop year to June 2008, against 217.3 million a year ago. - A fast growing economy, rising population and changing food habits are stoking food prices and pushing up inflation. - The farm sector directly employs more than 60 per cent of India's labour force, and provides all or some income for about 75 per cent. CHALLENGES: - Slow pace of farm growth. The government forecasts 3 per cent growth in the year to March 2008 against 3.8 per cent last year, severely lagging expansion in the overall economy which has averaged 8.8 per cent over the last four years. - Ten million farm workers need to be shifted to other sectors of the economy to ease the income disparity between farm and non-farm households. - Farm debt is increasing faster than farm incomes. - Only 4 per cent of farmers are covered by crop insurance. - The government is trying to push largescale field trials of genetically modified crops to deal with mounting food shortages. (Reuters and Ministry of Agriculture and Planning Commission)