The Agricultural Sector In India
- More than half of India’s population depend on rural incomes.
- More than half of India’s population are found in rural areas.
- Food security of the vast and fast-growing Indian population with rising disposable incomes depends on cultivation of cereals, fruits, vegetables, and milk.
The already large and rapidly growing population of India is slated to become the world’s largest in the not-so-distant future. This population increase will result in a huge demand for food. Given the dwindling acreages under agriculture, this demand can only be increased through higher agricultural productivity or by increasing food imports.
India is a predominantly agrarian country with a large agricultural sector. Despite the share of agriculture in India’s GDP dwindling to around 15 percent, almost half of India’s population is employed in the agri sector. As India is home to the second largest area of cultivable land in the world, it is also a major producer of a large number of agricultural products. India is the world’s largest producer of milk and a major producer of pulses.
While the growth of agricultural production has been robust over time and has been able to meet the demands of the growing population, India still has many concerns. Though India has achieved self-sufficiency in grain production, it still has a large number of hungry and undernourished people.
Per the Global Nutrition Report (2021), India is “off-course” ’ in meeting seven of thirteen global nutrition targets with no progress on anemia, childhood wasting, and other issues. Despite achieving grain self-sufficiency, the farming sector relies on resource-intensive farming techniques and is cereal centric, regionally skewed, and beset with sustainability issues. The rapidly increasing stress on water resources, desertification, and land degradation are challenges that need to be addressed.
Agriculture has significant importance in India’s economic and social fabric; the key factors of sectoral employment, rural employment, and food security cannot continue to be disregarded. Agriculture requires policies and methodologies that are productive, competitive, diversified, and sustainable.
Agriculture in India has achieved grain self-sufficiency, but the sector relies on resource-intensive farming techniques, remains cereal centric, and is regionally skewed and beset with sustainability issues. Policies and methodologies are required that are productive, competitive, diversified, and sustainable.
Also Read- Role of Modern Technology in Agriculture
Challenges Facing The Agriculture Sector
- Increasing agricultural yield per unit of land: Limited availability of cultivable land and water resources call for raising productivity per unit of land. The need is urgent to increase yields, diversify to value added crops; and reduce costs, wastages, and pilferage.
- Poverty alleviation: Tackling rural poverty is key to make agriculture as well as non-farm employment accessible to rural masses and thereby reduce the dependence and overemployment in the sector.
- Emphasis on aligning agriculture to food security needs: The Green Revolution and agricultural intensification led to self-sufficiency in food-grains, declining food prices, and reduction in rural poverty. However, the pace of agricultural growth has slowed down considerably, and yields have plateaued. This leave the sector vulnerable to external shocks and requires a concerted effort on all fronts to adopt methods to increase yield and achieve growth.
The need of the hour is to concentrate on policy and program-based actions that will create a more productive, competitive, and diversified agricultural sector.
- Increase agricultural yield per unit of land
- Alleviate poverty
- Emphasize aligning agriculture with food security needs
The need of the hour is to concentrate on policy and program-based actions that will create a more productive, competitive, and diversified agricultural sector.
Boost Agricultural Development In India
1. Adopt new technologies: This depends on various factors such as socioeconomic conditions, geographical conditions, crop variety, and irrigation facilities, etc. The role of technology in agriculture can have various applications by way of use of modern farming machines, improved seed varieties, application of fertilizer/ pesticides, genetic engineering, etc. This will result in increased productivity by preventing soil degradation, using water efficiently, and reducing the use of chemicals. These factors will create a direct benefit in enhanced quality, quantity, and cost reduction.
2. Enhancing Soil Quality: With indiscriminate use of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, this endemic problem plagues agriculture. The goal to enhance the productive potential of soil through emphasis on its physics and micro-biology will include the design of chemical interventions (macro and micronutrients). Particular emphasis is needed in arid areas.
3. Irrigation Augmentation and Management: The agriculture sector is the largest consumer of water in India. But limited water availability leads to increasing competition between industry, domestic use, and agriculture. An immediate need is to plan and manage water in river basins to achieve a synergy in consumption on a multi-sectoral basis. This calls for augmenting supply through rainwater harvesting, recharging aquifers, and renovation of existing wells and ponds. Demand management should receive priority through improved irrigation practices, including sprinkler and drip irrigation. This will require a water literacy movement and regulation for the use of groundwater to achieve a conjunctive use of rain, river, ground, sea, and treated sewage water.
4. Agri-Credit and Crop Insurance: Reform in this area is key to enhancing small farm productivity. Easy and affordable credit must be made available through official channels for farmers that typically rely on private moneylenders. Risk mitigation by way of crop insurance requires immediate reform. The speed and the mechanism of this process requires policymakers to create innovative solutions that balance the financial system with farmers’ needs.
5. Efficient Markets: The importance of opportunities for assured and remunerative sale of produce will ultimately determine the economic well-being and sustainability of the farming sector. Market reform is a corollary of demand and supply and must be linked to production planning and not merely with government-led support interventions. The link between consumption and commerce chains is key to long-term survival and growth of the farming community.
Some few measures that will help boost agricultural development in India.
- Efficient markets
- Irrigation augmentation and management
- Agri-credit and crop insurance
- Adoption of new technologies
- Enhancement of soil quality
Also Read- Sustainable Agricultural Water Management: The need of the hour
To Conclude
Boosting agricultural development in India requires major reform and a strengthening of India’s agricultural research and extension systems. A diverse and large country such as India has huge variations in agro-climatic and economic conditions. A single strategy cannot be adopted across geographies to achieve agri-development, which requires a major thrust in reform of agricultural research and extension. These services are key in carrying the government vision to boost agricultural development. Diversification of livelihoods through allied sectors, such as animal husbandry, forestry, and fisheries, will help build resilience and lead to a productive tomorrow.
A single strategy cannot be adopted across geographies to achieve agricultural development in India. A major thrust in reform of agricultural research and extension is required.
Contributions of S M Sehgal Foundation for Rural India’s Agriculture Development
A sustainable rural development NGO in India, S M Sehgal Foundation, has been working since 1999 to enhance the lives of the rural communities in India. Established as a public, charitable trust, S M Sehgal Foundation has a team of trained and dedicated professionals who create sustainable programs to address the most pressing needs of rural India.
S M Sehgal Foundation’s Agriculture Development Program promotes the development of a sustainable farming sector in India by building the capacities of farmers, including women farmers, on improved agricultural practices and modern technologies that conserve water, improve soil fertility, and therefore increase crop yields. The Agricultural Development Program works with marginal farmers in irrigated areas to facilitate adoption of sustainable agricultural practices that include soil health management, water-efficient irrigation implementations, climate-smart interventions, input-use efficiency, horticultural development, small farm mechanization, livestock management, crop production management, and the application of information and communication technology in agriculture.
With the help of donors and partners around the world, S M Sehgal Foundation’s grassroots programs and development interventions have reached three million people across India, already empowering communities in need to escalate and enhance their own development.
A Project implemented by S M Sehgal Foundation to Boost Agri-Development.
In October 2021, a CSR development project was implemented by S M Sehgal Foundation in fifteen villages of Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh. These villages consist of smallholder and marginal farmers.
The aim of the community-led project was to disseminate sustainable solutions in agriculture, livelihood, and entrepreneurship development. The vision of the program was to enhance farmer income through entrepreneurship-oriented mechanization. Wheat harvesting by combine harvesters in this area is common due to the high cost of manual harvesting. However, the use of combine harvesters leads to the loss of wheat straw that could have been used as cattle fodder, and leaves crop residue in the field.
For the preparation of the field for the next crop, the farmers generally burn the crop residue, which results in environmental pollution. In order to overcome these challenges, the team proposed the adoption of a multi-crop harvester/reaper. A multi-crop reaper can harvest ten to twelve acres of farmland per day of crops such as wheat, paddy, mustard, pulses, sesame, soybean, barley, oat, and fodder. This reaper machine is suitable for all types of tractors, and the harvesting operations can be done in a much more-effectively than manually or through combine harvesters. Harvesting by these reapers is cost-effective, saves drudgery, and there is no loss of wheat straw for fodder. They are also environmentally friendly. The machine provides a new opportunity for entrepreneurship in agriculture.
In February 2022, one multi-crop reaper was provided to each of the villages of Husaini, Kajraut Bangar, and Undi, for demonstrations to the entire cluster of the fifteen project villages. The villages were selected on the basis of their potential for maximum coverage by the reaper, thereby providing benefit to the maximum number of farmers. The criteria for the selection of the reaper-entrepreneurs were: the farmer owning a tractor, the farmer was willing to use the machine in the land of fellow farmers as an enterprise, and the farmer was experienced and well-accepted by the community.
The reaper-entrepreneurs had to contribute a subsidized amount of INR 22,000 (total cost is INR 55,000) for this reaper. In March 2022, the multi-crop reaper was handed over and installed on the tractor of reaper-entrepreneurs. Within a very short period they got back the invested amount of INR 22,000, and the harvested quantity went up substantially. The performance of the machine was visible to all, and the other farmers, realizing the benefit, started to use this for harvesting. For this, the reaper entrepreneur charged INR 1,400 per acre, which was a substantial saving in comparison to INR 4,800 incurred in manual harvesting.
Through the project, S M Sehgal Foundation led the acceptance of technology by the farming community and helped them to achieve the dual benefit of pollution control and higher income.
FAQs
India is a predominantly agrarian country with a large agricultural sector. Despite the share of agriculture in India’s GDP dwindling to around 15 percent, almost half of India’s population is employed in the agri-sector. India is home to the second-largest area of cultivable land in the world and is a major producer of a large number of agricultural products.
- More than half of India’s population depend on rural incomes.
- More than half of India’s population is found in rural areas.
- Food security of the vast and fast-growing Indian population with rising disposable incomes depends on cultivation of cereals, fruits, vegetables, and milk.
The already large and rapidly growing population of India is slated to become the world’s largest in the not-so-distant future. This increase in the population will result in a huge demand for food. Given the dwindling acreages under agriculture, this demand can only be increased through higher agricultural productivity or by increasing food imports.
The need of the hour is to concentrate on policy and program-based actions that create a more productive, competitive, and diversified agricultural sector.
- Increase agricultural yield per unit of land.
- Alleviate poverty.
- Emphasize aligning agriculture to food security needs.
Some measures that will help boost agricultural development in India.
- Efficient markets
- Irrigation augmentation and management
- Agri-credit and crop insurance
- Adoption of new technologies
- Enhancement of soil quality
S M Sehgal Foundation has a skilled and dedicated team who create sustainable rural development programs to address rural India’s most pressing needs. With support from donors and partners around the world, they empower individuals and communities across India. Through the project Parivartan, S M Sehgal Foundation led the acceptance of technology by the farming community and helped them achieve the dual benefit of pollution control and higher income.