Agriculture in India
Agriculture has been a primary activity since the early period of the human history, and it has remained the oldest economic activity. Around two-third of the population of India is involved in agriculture and its allied activities, making it the largest livelihood provider. Most of the production by the farmers is consumed domestically and very little is exported.
Agriculture is the prime source of providing work to the rural India but its contribution in the GDP is minimal. Year-by-year the contribution of agriculture and its allied allied activities in the GDP decreased from 55% in 1950-51 to 18.2% in 2013-14, which is very sad.
In fact India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices and spice products. India's fruit production has grown faster than vegetables! making it the second largest fruit producer in the world. India's horticulture fruits, vegetables and spices reached to a record high of 283.5 million tonnes (MT) in 2014-15. It ranks third in farm and agricultural outputs. Agricultural export constitutes 10% of the country's export.
We are doing very fine in the field of spices, fruits and vegetables; but the per hectare productivity of some major crops in India is very low. It was at its lowest prior to Green Revolution, but after the Green Revolution and introduction of High Yield Variety (HYV) of seeds, modern agriculture productivity improved, but now enough. Even now the per hectare productivity of India in crops, particularly food grains is very low as compared to Brazil, USA, Australia, China.
There are several reasons behind low productivity including small land holdings, disguised unemployment, low marginal productivity, inadequate modernization of agriculture, low skill development, increased cost of production, price risks, inadequate irrigation facilities, slow pace of land reforms, inefficient institutional delivery of credit, inefficient marketing of farm produce and so on.
The department of Agriculture and Cooperation under Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the development of Agriculture sector in India. Since independence many schemes, programmes and plans have been launched by the government to increase its contribution in the Indian economy and also its productivity at the ground level, but the results are not very encouraging and satisfactory. Now some new approach is required to revamp the agricultural sector in India and increase its per hectare productivity.
In that line Government has already taken steps to address two major factors - soil and water - critical to improve agriculture production. Steps have been taken to improve soil fertility on a sustainable basis through the soil health card scheme and to support the organic farming scheme 'Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna' (परम्परागत कृषि विकास योजना). Other steps include improved access to irrigation through 'Pradhanmantri Gram Sinchai Yojna' (परम्परागत ग्राम सिंचाई योजना) enhanced water efficiency through 'Per Drop More Crop'. Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has unveiled the operational guidelines for the 'Pradhan Mantri Bima Yojna' (प्रधानमंत्री बिमा योजना) which aims to provide farmers with crop insurance in case of crop failure encouraging them to grow the affected crops. Another scheme under which farmers are encouraged is MSP (Minimum Support Price) for the crops to insure that farmers get a minimum amount for their crops.
Besides all these efforts, some other improvements to improve the productivity are:
In fact India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices and spice products. India's fruit production has grown faster than vegetables! making it the second largest fruit producer in the world. India's horticulture fruits, vegetables and spices reached to a record high of 283.5 million tonnes (MT) in 2014-15. It ranks third in farm and agricultural outputs. Agricultural export constitutes 10% of the country's export.
We are doing very fine in the field of spices, fruits and vegetables; but the per hectare productivity of some major crops in India is very low. It was at its lowest prior to Green Revolution, but after the Green Revolution and introduction of High Yield Variety (HYV) of seeds, modern agriculture productivity improved, but now enough. Even now the per hectare productivity of India in crops, particularly food grains is very low as compared to Brazil, USA, Australia, China.
There are several reasons behind low productivity including small land holdings, disguised unemployment, low marginal productivity, inadequate modernization of agriculture, low skill development, increased cost of production, price risks, inadequate irrigation facilities, slow pace of land reforms, inefficient institutional delivery of credit, inefficient marketing of farm produce and so on.
The department of Agriculture and Cooperation under Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the development of Agriculture sector in India. Since independence many schemes, programmes and plans have been launched by the government to increase its contribution in the Indian economy and also its productivity at the ground level, but the results are not very encouraging and satisfactory. Now some new approach is required to revamp the agricultural sector in India and increase its per hectare productivity.
In that line Government has already taken steps to address two major factors - soil and water - critical to improve agriculture production. Steps have been taken to improve soil fertility on a sustainable basis through the soil health card scheme and to support the organic farming scheme 'Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna' (परम्परागत कृषि विकास योजना). Other steps include improved access to irrigation through 'Pradhanmantri Gram Sinchai Yojna' (परम्परागत ग्राम सिंचाई योजना) enhanced water efficiency through 'Per Drop More Crop'. Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has unveiled the operational guidelines for the 'Pradhan Mantri Bima Yojna' (प्रधानमंत्री बिमा योजना) which aims to provide farmers with crop insurance in case of crop failure encouraging them to grow the affected crops. Another scheme under which farmers are encouraged is MSP (Minimum Support Price) for the crops to insure that farmers get a minimum amount for their crops.
Besides all these efforts, some other improvements to improve the productivity are:
- Introduction of better and efficient irrigation facilities
- Promotion fo agricultural mechanization
- Introduction and upgrading of large scale irrigation
- Improve promotion and transport of farm produce
- Supply of better quality of seed at low prices
- Promote multiple cropping
India is a vast cultivable land and it has a capability to produce more if utilized and targeted in right manner.
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