Condition of farmers will be improved, says PM

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Saturday said the Government would soon come up with measures to improve the conditions of farmers and hoped that India's rate of poverty could be reduced to a single digit within a decade.

"In the coming weeks, we plan to take further steps to improve the condition of farmers," the Prime Minister said, while addressing the All-India Congress Committee session here.

Dr Singh said that after a long gap the country has achieved an average agriculture growth rate of four per cent in the last three years, and added that it would be the government's endeavour to maintain this in the future.

He said that if the overall economic growth of around 9 per cent per annum, which has been achieved in the past three years, was maintained it would be possible to reduce poverty to single digit figure within the next decade. Dr Singh also pointed out that the Government had managed to keep inflation under control despite price of crude touching $100 per barrel, besides the wholesale price index was rising by around 3-4 per cent, which was the lowest in 20 years.