"This is not impossible. We grew at almost 7 percent last year, and this year too, we expect growth to be in excess of 7 percent," Singh told a farm conference.

"If one looks at the overall macro-economic scenario in the country today, I see that the environment is quite favourable for accelerating our growth rate to beyond eight percent."

Singh said the country must aim for over 4 percent agricultural growth for overall economic growth of more than 8 percent.

Asia's third largest economy grew at a robust 8.1 percent annually in the April-June quarter led by strong output in services and manufacturing.

Farm output, generating about a fifth of GDP, grew an annual 2.0 percent in April-June compared with 1.8 percent in the previous three-month period and 3.8 percent a year ago.

Singh said farm growth was not picking up, with average agricultural growth rates of just 1.5 percent since 2002/03 (April-March).

The Congress-led coalition government in its policy blueprint has set a target of achieving annual growth of 7-8 percent.

Singh said this year's growth projection was based on forecasts of less than 2 percent agricultural growth.

Almost 65 percent of the country's billion-plus people depend on agriculture for a living. India is one of the leading producers of wheat, rice and milk, fruit and vegetables. It produces more than 200 million tonnes of foodgrains a year.

But the farm sector is dogged by poor productivity and excessive dependence on the monsoon because of lack of irrigation facilities.