Accompanied by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar at the state government’s Sahyadri Guest House, Dr Singh said while the agriculture growth rate target has been set at four per cent, the current growth rate was below two per cent, which is retarding the nation’s progress. The Centre has already anounced a package of Rs 25,000 crore to push the agricultural growth.
Only by increasing the growth rate can the states overcome the agrarian crisis, Dr Singh said, referring to farmers’ suicide in Vidarbha region.
Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh made a presentation to Dr Singh over the implementation of Vidarbha package. Aided by official facts and figures, he claimed that the number of suicides by farmers has actually come down by half to what was before Singh’s visit to the region last year.
So far, Rs 1,795.80 crore out of the total package have been spent in the six worst-hit districts of Vidarbha, which is 48 per cent of the amount earmarked. Deshmukh claimed that while 58 farmers ended their lives during the first half of 2006 due to indebtedness, the figure has come down to 24 by May end.
Deshmukh told the PM that nearly 9.33 lakh farmers were benefited by the interest waiver and rescheduling of loans  worth Rs 1,407 crore. He said the government has distributed 3.80 lakh new kisan credit cards, and the credit flow has been increased from Rs 746 crore to Rs 2,013 crore.
He said 1,383 families of the deceased farmers were given an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh by the state government, which has contributed Rs 934 crore into the PM's relief package.
The PM was concerned over incomplete irrigation projects and small size of crop area under irrigation, which is only 16 per cent of the total agricultural land in the state.