India Sees 10 Percent Economic Growth If Farm Output Recovers

India''s economy could touch annual growth of 10 percent in the financial year beginning April 2008, provided its ailing farm sector picks up.''Achieving a 10 percent growth in 2007-2008 (April-March) is tough, but it is possible in 2008-2009,'' Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told economists at a function in New Delhi on Tuesday.

''That will be a fitting finale for the government''s five-year tenure,'' Chidambaram said, adding the target could be achieved only if India increased farm output.''It will be possible to push up the economic growth by improving the performance of agriculture, which has been stagnating,'' the minister said.

Agriculture contributes a fifth of India''s economic output and is a direct or indirect source of income for two-thirds of its population.Annual per capita food grain production shrunk from 207 kilograms in 1995 to 186 kilos last year. The rate of agricultural growth fell from five percent in the mid-1980s to less than two percent in the past five years.

India, the world''s second-largest wheat producer, exported no wheat last year after shortages forced it to import the commodity for the first time in six years.