Agriculture Sector in India and its problems "EMPOWER IAS"

Context:

• India’s agriculture sector plays a crucial role in Indian economy. Over 58 % of rural households depend on agriculture as their primary means of livelihood. Along with fisheries and forestry agriculture is one of the largest contributors to  nations GDP.

 

Major problems in Indian Agriculture sector:

• Low productivity Level: Per area productivity of Indian agriculture is much lower than other major crop producing countries such as China, Brazil,  and USA.
• Under developed irrigation facilities:  Rainfed agriculture contributes nearly 45% of the total agricultural output.
• Declining average size of farm holdings: Increasing demographic pressure, disguised employment in agriculture and conversion of agricultural land for alternative uses, have drastically reduced the average land holding.
• Dependence on rainfall: Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on monsoon and ever-increasing global temperature has made agriculture more prone to extreme weather events.
• Low international prices: Low global prices have affected exports and the cheaper imports have hurt domestic prices in the country.
• Lack of easy credit to agriculture and dependence on money lenders
• Fragmented supply chains:
  • Large gaps in storage, Cold chains
  • Limited connectivity
  • Absence of marketing infrastructure

• Lack of latest technology: Introduction of latest technology has been limited due to various reasons like accessibility for credit and low awareness.
• Soil degradation: Due to unscientific farming practices - excessive use of water, irrational usage of fertilizers, pesticides.
• Climate change and Erratic monsoon: Nearly 60% is rain-fed. Erratic monsoon makes the agricultural sector vulnerable.
• Lack of crop insurance: This is one of the problem in agriculutre sector
• Agricultural insurance mechanism in India is very low. The loss  of crop due to natural calamities  is frequent and insurance cover is must to safeguard farmers.
• Farmers’ suicide:  Cases of farmers suicide are rising due to crop failure , family problems, property issues. Etc.
• Over use of fertilizers: Extensive use of fertilizers  and continuous cultivation for many years affected the fertility of land. Use of  manure  will help the land to rejuvenate its fertility.

 

Solutions:

Although agriculture problem is very big still we can solve this problem with the following measures:

• Development initiatives including infrastructure, technological interventions, farmer friendly policies and institutional mechanisms can increase the agricultural growth and farmers income.
• Technology can help to reduce ‘yield gaps’ and thus improve productivity.
• The water-use efficiency can be improved significantly with better use of technologies that include drip irrigation.
• The quantitative framework for  doubling farmers income has the following seven sources of growth:
  • Increase in productivity of crops
  • Increase in production of livestock
  • Improvement in the efficiency of input use (cost saving)
  • Increase in crop intensity
  • Diversification towards high-value crops
  • Improved price realization by farmers
  • The shift of cultivators to non-farm jobs
• Improvements in allied sectors: Many small farmers cannot leave agriculture because of a lack of opportunities in the non-farm sector. Hence, allied sectors like horticulture, food processing, poultry etc needs to be pushed
• Cooperative Farming: In this context, consolidation of land holdings also becomes important to raise farmer incomes. Farmers can voluntarily come together and pool land to gain the benefits of size.
• There is a need to make a shift from rice and wheat-centric policies to millet, pulses, fruits, vegetables, livestock and fish.
• The creation of a competitive, stable and unified national market is needed for farmers to get better prices.
• Dissemination of Agricultural Technology: New approaches towards the dissemination of agricultural technology such as the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) model have contributed to diversification of agricultural production in Assam and Uttar Pradesh

 

Future perspective:

• Agriculture sector requires proactive policy management which can maximize benefits for all stakeholders.
• Raising the MSP, price deficiency payments or income support schemes can only be a partial solution to the problem of providing remunerative returns to farmers.
• A sustainable solution is market reforms to enable better price discovery combined with long-term trade policies favourable to exports.
• Use of Genetically Modified Crops will improve yield for Indian farmers.
• The need is to educated farmers regarding the use of proper quantity of manure, fertilizers, and good quality seeds to get desired output of the produce.
• Government initiative with the help of agricultural colleges and universities in association with gram panchayats are crucial for the implementation of policies. 
• By focusing on other factors such as reducing transaction cost, warehousing facilities, proper market and financial facilities will also contribute to the growth of the sector.

 

 

Conclusion

• Although lots of affords have already made by government’s side to boost agriculture sector but there is lot more to done in this direction.  India’s target of doubling farm income by 2022 is the good step in direction. The government has also taken various measures like the PM Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), PM Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY), electronic National Agricultural market (e-NAM), Soil health card, Neem-coated urea etc. With increased investments in agricultural infrastructure such as irrigation facilities, warehousing and cold storage the agriculture sector in India is expected to generate better yield and growth in the next few years.