Patna: Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Friday said Bihar was bound to script a revolution in the agriculture sector.

He made the claim while delivering a keynote address in a conference jointly held by the state government and the Indian Council for International Economic Relations (ICIER) on "unleashing Bihar agriculture potential".

ICIER is an independent agency, which does policy-related research works and makes the agencies concerned aware of the outcome of its work. The agency has prepared a report on the agriculture sector in Bihar. The report highlights the need of electricity, roads and marketing-related infrastructure for development of agriculture sector in Bihar.

On one hand Modi spoke at length on various steps having been taken by the state to strengthen the sector and on the other he quoted extensively from the ICIER report which talked about the positive changes having been witnessed in the sector in the state.

"While Bihar recorded an average growth rate of 4.7 per cent in the agriculture sector between 2005-06 and 2014-15, the national average of the growth rate was 3.6 per cent," said Modi quoting the report.

He also highlighted the point how rice productivity in Bihar had gone up to 2.5 tonnes per hectare in 2016-17 whereas it stood at 1.1 tonne per hectare in 2005-06.

Agriculture minister Prem Kumar dwelt on the agriculture roadmap introduced by the state and recounted the benefits that the state has accrued because of its implementation.

"The state government is committed to double the income of farmers of Bihar and we plan to achieve it by implementing the third agriculture roadmap," he said.

Energy minister Bijendra Yadav spoke about the steps being taken to end dependence of farmers on diesel for running their pumps and said in the coming two years the state would witness electricity-based irrigation.

"We are setting up separate feeders for agriculture-related works," he said.

Water resources minister Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh said out of the 52 lakh arable land in Bihar, irrigation facility had been provided to 29.69 lakh hectares and the facility would be added to another 3 lakh hectares in the current fiscal.