CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday underscored the need for laying greater emphasis on agriculture and habitation in the Twelfth Five Year Plan for Tamil Nadu.She also asked the members of the State Planning Commission (SPC) to consider the opportunities and constraints that confronted the State in tackling the challenges in the backlash of the global financial crisis, while drawing up an Approach Paper for the Twelfth Plan.“We have set ourselves a goal of increasing the farmers’ per capita income by two to 300 per cent within five years,” said the CM, who is also the chairperson of the SPC, while presiding over the first meet of the panel held at the Secretariat here.The CM said her government proposed to achieve the increase in per capita income of farmers through effective dissemination and advanced technology to increase productivity of crops besides farm-based interventions for mixed farming and by convergence of schemes.She also said that the government had set for itself an ambitious target of 115 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrain production in the current year as against last year’s 85.35 lakh metric tonnes. The CM expressed confidence that the new Tamil Nadu Village Habitation Improvement Scheme (THAI) would prove to be a paradigm shift in this direction and lead to the creation of amenities in villages of standards comparable to urban areas, besides improving the standards of living of rural people who continue to constitute a major share of the State’s population.During the 11th Plan, TN set for itself an average growth target of nine per cent. But the growth rate in the primary and secondary sectors were disappointing and below the national average, she said and added that as a result of these factors, the State economy could achieve a cumulative growth of only 7.8 per cent in the first four years. There was a need to make the primary and manufacturing sectors as the main drivers to achieve higher growth. Critical bottlenecks in infrastructure development should also be addressed to sustain higher growth in the Service sector for an overall growth of above 10 per cent in the coming years, she said and added that growth needed to be more inclusive and reduce urban-rural disparity. SPC vice-chairperson Shanta Sheela Nair and members of the Commission took part.
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