India To Spend $1.2 Bln To Raise Food Output

India will spend 49 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) over the next four years to raise wheat output to 80 million tonnes, and step up production of rice and pulses, the finance minister said on Thursday.Palaniappan Chidambaram told reporters the cabinet had approved a plan to boost grains and pulses output, which had been stagnating while consumption rose.

The government has identified 305 of India''s more than 600 districts in which to implement the plan, he said.

It wants to boost rice production to 101 million tonnes annually by 2011, from around 90 million tonnes now, as part of efforts to reduce the need for costly imports.

In an interview with Reuters in June, Agriculture Commissioner N.B. Singh had said India aimed to increase oilseed production to 35 million tonnes and pulses output to 15 million tonnes by 2011.

Singh said a country of India''s size, with more than a billion people, could not afford to import large amounts of food, and should strive to become self-sufficient.India imported 5.5 million tonnes of wheat in 2006 to overcome a supply squeeze and has already contracted 511,000 tonnes of wheat this year to build stocks. It is thought to have harvested more than 74 million tonnes this year.