Challenging issues behind developing Indian agriculture market

Agriculture once known as the backbone of Indian Economy is at present at its worst, thanks to the anti farmer, pro-Industry policy of the various Indian Governments since 1991. India is once considered as the "Ann Data" of the entire world is struggling even to manage the own demand-supply problem of various agricultural commodities. The farmers are committing suicides, are celebrating "Crop Holidays" and are fighting with Govt. for illegal acquisition of land for developing Real estate or other commercially viable projects at the cost of Agriculture. The aim of this paper is to bring out the present scenario in the field of agriculture that leads to the minimum contribution of Agriculture in the Indian GDP, once the main contributor. This paper will discuss the various issues like less technical support to farmers, poor quality seeds, inappropriate storage, Minimum Support Price, irrigation, the problem of credit availability and above all the impact of Liberal...

Economist believes that Indian Agriculture sector achieved its growth upto remarkable level in last few decadess in the terms of Production, Output Growth etc. However there are various commodities in agriculture and allied sector which makes India Major producer in world market such as sugarcane, cotton, wheat, rice, spices, poultry farming, fisheries, livestock, milk, jute, pulses etc. The data of 12th five year plan shows that the target for the growth of agriculture and allied sector was 4.0 per cent annully and the actual achievement was 3.6 per cent annually in the GDP. Although data shows that agriculture and allied sector did not acheved its target which was 4.0 per cent but in case of production, it achieved a remarkable growth rate as compare to the ratio of population. World trade data shows that in a critical condition where other countries was facing slow down in agriculture sector India still has its positive growth in the export of its agriculture and allied sector commodieties. This paper is based on the secondary data which aims to analyse the pattern of growth of agriculuture and allied sector in India. Data have been collected from various government agencies, ministries, RBI etc.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2022

Agriculture sector has an important place in Indian Economy even though it contributes only around 20% to GDP of the country and 50% to national income. India is still called an agrarian economy as it supports directly or indirectly about 42% of workforce of the country. India has had record agricultural production of 315.7 million tonnes although the productivity per acre of land is still a challenge. Indian farmers are looking to increase their income and in order to achieve the same are diversify their crops and looking for allied agriculture activities. Although the country is leader in production of various crops still the price volatility remains a concern. There are many concerns in agriculture like lack of power, irrigation, fragmented ownership etc., but what is more important is the solution for these problems which lies in the future and looks promising due to new technologies and innovations which are coming up in the field.

Economic and Political Weekly, 2007

Conference Papers, 2016

s policymakers have been targeting 4 per cent growth for the agricultural sector ever since the 9th 5-year plan (1995/96-2000/2001); the target, however, has remained elusive. The sector grew at an annual rate of 3.2 per cent during 1980/81 to 1995/96, the peak of Green Revolution. However, it started showing signs of stress afterwards, with growth in it decelerating to less than 2 per cent during 1996/97 to 2004/05. The poor performance of agriculture was on account of numerous factors such as deceleration in yield growth of important crops such as rice and wheat, decline in public investment and increased frequency of extreme climate events, viz., droughts and floods. Subsequently, many corrective measures were taken to arrest the decline in agriculture and the growth recovered later on, reaching to 3.8 per cent during 2006/07-2011/12. Agriculture remains a key sector of Indian economy because of its strategic importance to food security, employment generation and poverty reduction, despite a rapid decline in its income share to less than 15 per cent in 2012-13. Close to 70 per cent of India's population lives in rural areas and about 70 per cent of it depends on agriculture for its livelihood. By 2030 India's population will exceed 1.5 billion, and to feed this number the country will require approximately 320 million tonnes of food grains, 290 million tonnes of vegetables and fruits, 185 million tons of milk, 26 million tonnes of meat, eggs and fish and 23 million tonnes of edible oils (Joshi and Kumar, 2011). Balancing this demand with domestic supply, however, will not be an easy task. Agriculture will face a confluence of biotic and abiotic pressures. Land, water and energy will emerge as main limiting factors. India's net cropped area has been stagnating at around 140 million hectares; hence there is little scope to source growth through area expansion. Intensification of the existing production systems will be constrained by acute scarcity of water and energy. Moreover, climate change will pose a significant threat to the sustainable development of agriculture. Fostering rapid and sustainable growth in agriculture, thus, remains to be a major policy challenge.

Amber Waves, 2016

Since the 1980s, Indian agriculture has undergone a shift in production as farmers have planted less area to food grains and more to high-value crops. This shift coincides with strong economic growth, which has boosted incomes and, in turn, expanded consumer demand for higher valued foods, such as fruit, vegetables, milk, and some meat products. Yet, India's agricultural policies continue to follow a Green Revolution strategy developed to achieve grain self-sufficiency in the 1960s. That strategy focuses on investments in agricultural research, irrigation, transportation, and market infrastructure, and on output and PRINT PDF EMAIL

South Asian Journal of Social Studies and Economics, 2020

Agriculture plays vital role in the process of economic development of less developed countries like, India. Besides providing food for the nation, agriculture absorbs labor, provides saving, contributes to the market of industrial goods and earn overseas exchange. The present study attempted to examine the performance of Indian agriculture during post green revolution period and economic reform period. A semi-log model was used to calculate compound annual growth rate of major food and non-food crops. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the land use pattern change and cropping pattern change. Fertilizer use ratio was calculated to examine the judicious use of chemical fertilizers. Study findings reveal that though, green revolution moved out from the food crisis arisen in the early sixties in some extent, but it also brought regional disparities in the resources use, productivity and cropping pattern. Promotional price policy for some cash crops leads to scarcity in others. Change in an environmental factors, along with economic and technological factors are increasing degree of the vulnerability in farm profits in particular and the livelihood of farmers in general. The present study suggested following policy implications. First, there is need of ultramodern technology that provides up-to-date weather information. Second, government should promote home-made bio-fertilizers and organic farm practices. Third, an intensive survey should be carrying out to understand the farm requirement of marginal farmers and based on the feedback mechanism, technology would be develop. Fourth, private investors should be invited to develop a food chain Original Research Article Singh; SAJSSE, 6(2): 17-34, 2020; Article no.SAJSSE.55683 18 mechanism to procure the food items at the time of harvesting and release in the off-cropping season for price stability. Lastly, India needs land reforms, in which, land consolidation and identification of real farmers should be given first priority.

Agriculture plays a vital role in India's economy. Over 58 per cent of the rural households depend on agriculture as their principal means of livelihood. Agriculture, along with fisheries and forestry, is one of the largest contributors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Today, India ranks second worldwide in farm output. The economic contribution of agriculture to India's GDP is steadily declining with the country's broad-based economic growth. Still, agriculture is demographically the broadest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socioeconomic fabric of India. The agriculture sector in India is expected to generate better momentum in the next few years due to increased investments in agricultural infrastructure such as irrigation facilities, warehousing and cold storage. Factors such as reduced transaction costs and time, improved port gate management and better fiscal incentives would contribute to the sector's growth.

India is considered as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Agriculture is the mother of any economy, whether it is rich or poor. Much of its influence is on the other sectors of economy-industry and service. India is the second largest in farm output. Hence, India's economic security continues to be predicated upon the agriculture sector, and the situation is not likely to change in the near future. Even today, the share of agriculture in employment is about 49% of the population, as against around 75% at the time of independence. In the same period, the contribution of agriculture and allied sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has fallen from 61% to 17% in 2015-16. Around 51% of India's geographical area is already under cultivation as compared to 11% of the world average. China with lesser cultivable land produces double the food grains, i.e. 607 million tons in 2015-16 as compared with India's 252 million tons in 2015-16. The present cropping intensity of 136% has registered an increase of only 25% since independence. Further, rain fed dry lands constitute 65% of the total net sown area. There is also an unprecedented degradation of land (107 million ha) and groundwater resource, and also fall in the rate of growth of total factor productivity. This deceleration needs to be arrested and agricultural productivity has to be doubled to meet growing demands of the population by 2050. Natural resource base of agriculture, which provides for sustainable production, is shrinking and degrading, and is adversely affecting production capacity of the ecosystem. However, demand for agriculture is rising rapidly with increase in population and per capita income and growing demand from industry sector. There is, thus, an urgent need to identify severity of problem confronting agriculture sector to restore its vitality and put it back on higher growth trajectory. The problems, however, are surmountable, particularly when new tools of science and technology have started offering tremendous opportunities for application in agriculture. However, the country recorded impressive achievements in agriculture during three decades since the onset of green revolution in late sixties. This enabled the country to overcome widespread hunger and starvation; achieve self-sufficiency in food; reduce poverty and bring economic transformation in millions of rural families. The situation, however, started turning adverse for the sector around mid-nineties, with slowdown in growth rate of output, which then resulted in stagnation or even decline in farmers' income leading to agrarian distress, which is spreading and turning more and more serious. This Paper attempts to focus attention on Issues, Challenges and Government policies of Indian Agriculture in the context of Globalization.