Prime minister Manmohan Singh directed union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to bring out a report on the state of the agriculture sector in India. Singh wants an annual report to be presented in Parliament every year before the union budget.

In a missive, the prime minister's office has told the agriculture ministry that the report will be in addition to the annual report of the department and the annual economic survey which contains a chapter on agriculture.

Since issues concerning agriculture also fall within the domains of other ministries and departments - fertiliser, land resources, power, water, food processing among others - analytical inputs from these will also be discussed in the report.

The emphasis should be on analysis of policy issues, evaluation of schemes and programmes and their impact on agriculutre sector, the letter noted. Challenges should be identified and the strategy to scale up the development process for different agri inputs should be indicated in the report, it added.