Agriculture in India

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Rice R Wheat W Jowar (Sorghum) J Bajra (Millet) B Areas with two predominate
crops

Minor crop Areas in India: P Pulses, S Sugarcane, J Jute, Cn Coconut, C Cotton, and T
Tea.
The fertile Ganges River Delta—known for severe flooding and tropical cyclones—
supports cultivation of jute, tea, and rice. Fisheries are both produced and exported from
this region.

Agriculture in India has a long history dating back to ten thousand years.

Today, India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like
forestry and logging accounted for 16.6% of the GDP in 2007, employed 52% of the total
workforce[1] and despite a steady decline of its share in the GDP, is still the largest
economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic development
of India.

India is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger,
turmeric and black pepper.[2] It also has the world's largest cattle population (281 million).
[3]
It is the second largest producer of wheat, rice, sugar, groundnut and inland fish.[4] It is
the third largest producer of tobacco.[4] India accounts for 10% of the world fruit
production with first rank in the production of banana and sapota.[4]

India's population is growing faster than its ability to produce rice and wheat.[5]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Initiatives
• 2 Problems
• 3 History
• 4 See also
• 5 Gallery
• 6 Notes

• 7 External links
 [edit] Initiatives
The required level of investment for the development of marketing, storage and cold
storage infrastructure is estimated to be huge. The government has not been able to
implement various schemes to raise investment in marketing infrastructure. Among these
schemes are Construction of Rural Go downs, Market Research and Information
Network, and Development / Strengthening of Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure,
Grading and Standardization.[6]

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), established in 1905, was responsible
for the research leading to the "Indian Green Revolution" of the 1970s. The Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is the apex body in agriculture and related
allied fields, including research and education.[7] The Union Minister of Agriculture is the
President of the ICAR. The Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute develops new
techniques for the design of agricultural experiments, analyses data in agriculture, and
specializes in statistical techniques for animal and plant breeding.

Recently Government of India has set up Farmers Commission to completely evaluate the
agriculture program.[8]. However the recommendations have had a mixed reception.

1. mixed farming

In August 2001 India's Parliament passed the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers'
Rights Act, a sui generis legislation. Being a WTO member, India had to comply with
TRIPS and include PVP. However, farmers' rights are of particular importance in India
and thus the Act also allows for farmers to save, sow and sell seeds as they always have,
even if it is of a protected variety. This not only saves the livlihoods of many farmers, it
also provides an environment for the continuing development and use of landraces, says
Suman Sahai. The way it always was

[edit] Problems
Slow agricultural growth is a concern for policymakers as some two-thirds of India’s
people depend on rural employment for a living. Current agricultural practices are neither
economically nor environmentally sustainable and India's yields for many agricultural
commodities are low. Poorly maintained irrigation systems and almost universal lack of
good extension services are among the factors responsible. Farmers' access to markets is
hampered by poor roads, rudimentary market infrastructure, and excessive regulation.
—World Bank: "India Country Overview 2008"[9]

The low productivity in India is a result of the following factors:

• According to World Bank, Indian Branch: Priorities for Agriculture and Rural
Development", India's large agricultural subsidies are hampering productivity-
enhancing investment. Overregulation of agriculture has increased costs, price
 risks and uncertainty. Government intervenes in labour, land, and credit markets.
India has inadequate infrastructure and services.[10] World Bank also says that the
allocation of water is inefficient, unsustainable and inequitable. The irrigation
infrastructure is deteriorating.[10] The overuse of water is currently being covered
by over pumping aquifers, but as these are falling by foot of groundwater each
year, this is a limited resource.[11]
• Illiteracy, general socio-economic backwardness, slow progress in implementing
land reforms and inadequate or inefficient finance and marketing services for
farm produce.
• Inconsistent government policy. Agricultural subsidies and taxes often changed
without notice for short term political ends.
• The average size of land holdings is very small (less than 20,000 m²) and is
subject to fragmentation, due to land ceiling acts and in some cases, family
disputes. Such small holdings are often over-manned, resulting in disguised
unemployment and low productivity of labour.
• Adoption of modern agricultural practices and use of technology is inadequate,
hampered by ignorance of such practices, high costs and impracticality in the case
of small land holdings.
• Irrigation facilities are inadequate, as revealed by the fact that only 52.6% of the
land was irrigated in 2003–04,[12] which result in farmers still being dependent on
rainfall, specifically the Monsoon season. A good monsoon results in a robust
growth for the economy as a whole, while a poor monsoon leads to a sluggish
growth.[13] Farm credit is regulated by NABARD, which is the statutory apex
agent for rural development in the subcontinent. At the same time overpumping
made possible by subsidized electric power is leading to an alarming drop in
aquifer levels.[14

Malnutrition

Chronic food insecurity is the most prominent symptom of poverty in India. According to
UNICEF, 42.5% of all young children were underweight in 2008, many of them in the
more serious categories of wasting and stunting. Any improvement in this indicator since
1990 has been far too slow to satisfy the MDG target of halving hunger.

Poor standards of nutrition undermine all health indicators. Almost half of all Indian
babies are born underweight and 5% die within a year of birth. The risk of haemorrhage
in childbirth is aggravated by anaemia, a diet-related condition which affects almost all
pregnant women in India.

Per capita consumption of the crucial protein in pulses has declined to about 20% of
recommended intake. Less food is available to rural households than in the 1950s. This is
a worrying platform on which to build food security strategies for 2050 by which time
India’s population is projected to grow from 1.2 billion to 1.7 billion.
top
Causes of Food Insecurity
Across the country 75% of farms cover less than two
hectares; in Bihar this figure rises to over 95%. Over
60% of crops are rain-fed. The rural investment
necessary to support this profile of agriculture - efficient
transport and communications, reliable microfinance
and cooperative management structures – has not been
forthcoming and middlemen hold the upper hand.

Regulations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dairy co-operative in

which force Indian farmers to compete on an unlevel Pondicherry © Peter
playing field have undermined the sector. Agricultural Armstrong
imports have increased four times since the WTO came
into effect in 1995. It can be no surprise that India's insistence on special protection for its
farmers was a vital factor in the collapse of the Doha round of WTO negotiations.
top
Government Policies

Governments have opted for subsidy over investment, often in pursuit of electoral
support. Natural resources become degraded in consequence. Groundwater levels are
collapsing and many irrigation systems are in poor repair, partly due to provision of free
power and water to farmers. According to the government’s State of Environment Report
2009, about 15% of agricultural land has been degraded through excessive use of
subsidised chemicals.

Given such stresses in the rural economy, it is remarkable that India negotiated the food
crisis of 2007/08 without any breakdown of public order. This was achieved partly by the
temporary ban on food exports and partly through direct assistance.

For example the 2008 budget introduced a loan waiver scheme which wrote off debts
totalling $14 billion for tens of millions of farmers. This was a response to the mounting
tragedy of 90,000 suicides of farmers since 2001, most of them
faced with crippling debts for farm inputs.

Existing safety net provisions also played a role, despite their

flaws. The Public Food Distribution System (PDS) enables poor
families to purchase essentials from a network of almost half a
million government shops at discounted prices. The extent of the Pesticide spraying,
discount depends on need which is assessed individually. India. © Centre for
Science and
This structure is a recipe for bureaucratic stagnation and Environment
corruption. Numbers are very unclear but it is thought that PDS
distribution reaches less than 20% of those who should receive it. A new Food Security
Act currently under discussion would guarantee the right of all BPL households to 25kg
of wheat per month at very low price. How this will overcome all of the PDS
shortcomings is uncertain.

The rural economy also benefits from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(NREGA) which guarantees 100 days of paid employment to one person from every
household to work on public infrastructure projects. Initially confined to selected states,
NREGA has been extended. It too is impeded by inefficiencies but is scheduled to
support over 40 million households in 2009/10.

Critics have suggested that the vast expenditure involved

in these and other farming subsidies should be more
strategically targeted. Rural development needs such as
soil regeneration, irrigation, land reform and
diversifying livelihoods are crying out for investment.
Resort to genetically-modified food crops appears
unlikely as farmers are generally opposed. In a landmark
decision in early 2010, the Environment Minister,
Jairam Ramesh, rejected proposals to develop Bt Brinjal, Indian farmers burn
a modified aubergine. genetically modified crop ©
Intercontinental Caravan (ICC)
Prices have been rising again in the latter part of 2009,
partly on account of the failure of the summer monsoon. With so many households just
above the poverty line, spending large proportions of their income on food, there is
concern that poverty and malnutrition will be on the rise once again.
The Food Corporation of India was setup under the Food Corporation Act 1964, in order to fulfill
the following objectives :

To provide the farmers remunerative prices

To make foodgrains available at reasonable prices, particularly to the vulnerable sections of

society

To maintain buffer stocks as a measure of Food Security

To intervene in the market for price stablilisation

About FCI

The Food Corporation of India was set up under the Food Corporation Act 1964 and on
14th January, 2006, FCI completed 41 years of its existence. FCI was set up to secure strategic
position in food grains trade and implement the National Policy for Price Support operations,
procurement, storage, inter-state movement and distribution operations, in short to operate the
Central Pool. Today, FCI is the country leader in food grains management and is fully focused on
helping farmers feed the country, better and more efficiently, today and tomorrow.

Food constitutes the main requirement of every human being. In a sub-continent like India where
millions of mouths depend on Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and other welfare
schemes of Govt. of India, FCI, plays a leading role in making food grains available to the extent
of 30 lakh tones during a month, to respective State Govts. for its distribution among
beneficiaries. To procure, store, preserve and move such a huge quantity of stocks spreading
over vast areas with its intricate network is, indeed, a nerve and back-jerking task.
Why India is hit by slow growth in agriculture
Commodity Online
NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Monday conceded that the country's agriculture sector has been hit
by lack of adequate public sector investment.

Speaking in the Parliament, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that the factors for slow growth in the
agriculture sector are mainly attributed to lack of adequate public sector investment in agriculture and
periodic failures/weak monsoon in some years of the tenth Plan.

However, the average growth rate realized during the last two years has been more than 4 per cent.

Pawar said the National Development Council (NDC) in its 53rd meeting held on 29th May, 2007 reaffirmed
its commitment to achieve 4 per cent annual growth in the agricultural sector during the Eleventh Plan and
resolved that agricultural development strategies must be reoriented to meet the needs of farmers and
urged the Central and State Governments to evolve a strategy to rejuvenate agriculture.

Pawar pointed out that towards improving the growth in the agriculture sector, recently, the Government has
done the following:

**Launched the National Food Security Mission with an outlay of Rs.4,882 crore for the Eleventh Plan
period. It aims to produce additional 10 million tonnes of rice, 8 million tonnes of wheat and 2 million tonnes
of pulses by the end of the Eleventh Plan.

**Launched the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), with an outlay of Rs.25,000 crore which aims at
achieving 4% annual growth in the agriculture sector during the Eleventh Plan period, through incentivising
the States to invest more in the sector.

**Established National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) to assist and support in planning for rainfed areas.

**Provided additional financial resources for irrigation.

**Strategic focus on the national agriculture research effort.