Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called for greater encouragement to export-oriented sectors like floriculture. The output of oilseeds and pulses also needed to be stepped up to achieve self-sufficiency in these products, he said.

Vajpayee was inaugurating the programme for setting up Krishi (agriculture) call centres and exclusive farm channels on the Doordarshan and television channels of the Indira Gandhi National Open University.

He said though the country's agricultural output had grown substantially, the product base was not diversified enough to end deficits of essential items like edible oils and pulses. Since these commodities had still to be imported, it was causing hardships for the poor.