Draft Ninth Fiver Year Plan 1997-2002 Government of Punjab

Abstract

Punjab has a predominantly rural-based economy with the primary sector including agriculture and livestock contributing 44.3% of the Gross State Domestic Product in 1996-97. Since agricultural production has almost reached a plateau, a strategy needs to be developed for diversifying from the wheat-paddy cycle and ensuring value addition to the agricultural produce through agro processing. However, the combined contribution of the agriculture and livestock sector to the total gross state domestic product of the State has shown a downward trend during the Five Year Plans while that of the manufacturing sector has shown improvement. Similarly, the contribution of the tertiary sector has also in-proved slightly and this is a welcome trend that needs acceleration.