"At a time when India's agriculture is
not growing beyond 3 per cent, Gujarat's agriculture is growing at 11 per cent,
despite the fact that unlike the rest of the country, the state is not blessed
with perennial rivers," Modi said addressing NRIs across 12 cities in the
US through a video-conferencing session.
The Chief Minister said Gujarat has achieved
"balanced growth" in sectors like agriculture, industry and services.
Speaking about agricultural growth, Modi told the overseas audience that the
agricultural income has shot up to Rs 96,000 crore as compared to Rs 14,700
crore a decade ago, with farmers being the major beneficiaries.
"From 108 lakh hectares of agriculture
land in 2001, Gujarat now has 135 lakh hectares," Modi said adding that he
would not let the agriculture land get reduced.
This is for the first time that agriculture
and industry are thriving side by side on such a vast scale, he asserted.
Modi told them that Gujarat's milk production
has risen by 68 per cent and the state is taking great strides in cotton
production. In 2001, Gujarat produced 23 lakh bales of cotton, but today the
figure stands at 1.23 crore bales (one bale equals 170 kg).
Modi said Gujarat was surging ahead in the
manufacturing sector as well and was all set to turn into Asia's auto-hub. Even
American auto giant Ford is coming to Gujarat, he said.
While addressing the gathering, he pointed
out that American companies had invested Rs 15,000 crore in Gujarat and Canada
had been working with the state in close coordination for quite some time.
Modi invited the audience to visit the state
during the upcoming 2013 'Vibrant Gujarat' Summit and the Uttarayan
festivities.
Modi also spoke about Gujarat's advancement
in the field of solar energy. He claimed that the state has dedicated 600 MW to
the national grid, while the rest of the country is producing only 120 MW of
solar energy.
The solar park set up at Charanka will be the
Asia's largest, Modi said.
He also claimed that the innovative canal-top
solar power project was beneficial in saving about one crore litres of water
per kilometer from evaporation annually and would save 16 per cent of
electricity and land for farmers.
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