The share of agriculture sector in the country’s GDP has declined from 15.8 percent in 2008-09 to 14.5 percent in 2010-11.

Stating this in the Rajya Sabha today, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Tariq Anwar said the decline of 1.3 percent over two years is on account of comparatively higher growth of other sectors.

Similarly, the number of workers employed in agriculture declined from 580 in 2005-06 to 532 in 2009-10 for every one thousand employed people. This was primarily on account of higher employment opportunities in non-agriculture sectors.

In reply to another query, the Minister said per capita availability of foodgrains declined to 437.1 gram per day in the year 2010 from 494.1 grams per day in 2002. However, according to provisional figures this has again risen to 462.9 grams per day in the last year.

The changes were mainly due to fluctuations in production of foodgrains on account of variations in weather conditions and increasing population.