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Group C - SEEB - Action Project
Group C - SEEB - Action Project
Section 1
Agriculture in India is an important sector since 1947, at that time it was 55% of the
total GDP engaging near about 70% of the total population in this sector. But even
by engaging such a large population the production was very low due lesser
productivity, the result of which the per capita income was awful. During the year of
1950-51, it was realized that to sustain the country there is need for planned
approach towards the agricultural development especially for the rural India for
developing their living standards and thus by decreasing the widespread poverty
and malnutrition. The unique feature of Indias agricultural economy is its varied
agro ecosystems, which result in tremendous variation across the country. To tackle
this situation, policy should be such that it will focus research on every possible
variation in the ecosystem, in order to come up with a region specific plan of action.
The era of pre-green revolution (1950-1968) saw drastic decline in the growth in
GDP agriculture. The reason was due to lack of proper technology, mechanization,
good quality planting materials and lesser use of fertilizers. The Green Revolution
was started by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan in 1966 but its effects were seen after 196869. Later on the era was characterized by trying to achieve a sustained growth. The
details of the contrasts and comparison I mentioned in the table below.
Phases
All Sectors
Agriculture
and allied
2.00
Agriculture
Non
Agriculture
5.42
Pre-Green
3.71
1.97
Revolution
Green Revolution
3.72
2.38
2.63
4.62
Period
of
Wider 5.52
3.57
3.58
6.40
Dissemination
Post Reforms
6.01
2.08
2.04
7.23
Recovery
8.24
2.62
2.55
9.47
The inference was that, overall economy was growing at a steady rate, expect
during the era of Green Revolution. However in the case of agriculture and its allied
sector there was fall of the growth rate during the post-reform era which continued
for some time then the phase of recovery begin. Also, it could be seen that the nonagricultural sectors were much more catalyzed after liberal reforms rather
agriculture suffered. While agriculture suffered, the non-agriculture sectors
continued its growth trends achieving a growth rate of 9.47% in 2011, which was
about more than three times of agriculture during that period.
Mostly, there is nothing we can put on the policy of liberalization of the country in
the form of trade and industrial policy reforms that must be damaging agriculture.
Also no major segment has shown a steady contraction, damage caused by
changing policy rather some crops like cotton and horticulture have expanded
rapidly during the reform process. Also, apart from the internally driven reforms, the
decade witness a change in economic environment i.e. accession of India to the
WTO norms in 1995. It may be considered as potentially doubly beneficial to
agriculture, if industries would have been more protected among the sectors.
Land Holdings
19811991-92
82
56.0
62.8
19.3
17.8
14.2
12.0
200203
69.8
16.1
9.0
201213
73.3
15.3
7.2
Medium
(410ha)
Large (>10ha)
Total
14.0
11.1
8.6
6.1
4.3
3.7
4.5
100.0
3.1
100.0
1.9
100.0
1.3
100.0
0.8
100.0
0.5
100.0
Decreasing land holdings has been a problem for the nation since the beginning
which need to be addressed, otherwise could have an adverse impact. As we can
see in the table above by now the majority of farms holding are under marginal and
semi-medium and the percentage of land under large land holdings will soon
become zero. These figures can actually lead to a downscaling production in the
sense of cultivation taking place on the progressively smaller farm units. Almost
50% of the Indian states have lesser than the average land holdings required to
sustain a family of five, where as some states like Assam, Haryana, Madhya
Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have more than the
average of the minimum required.
India has more than 50% of total land under rain-fed category that contributes 40%
of food and supports 40% of human and 60% of the total livestock population.
These areas are characterized by deficient and erratic rainfall followed by rampant
land degradation consisting of mostly small and marginally poor farmers. These
areas were left behind during the time of green revolution. These areas still have
low productivity and marketable surplus i.e. yet to be utilized properly. In order to
revive the agriculture in India, some technological intervention are which may raise
the productivity by half-a-tonne/ha. The work that is needed to be done are: water
harvesting and ground water recharging for supplemental irrigation (117 Mha-m
water goes as runoff), adopting micro irrigation to increase the water use efficiency,
use of fertilizers on soil test basis, development of the existing crops and at the
same time trying to introduce new suitable crops (maize hybrids, pulses and
oilseeds), adopting IPM or integrated pest management system to maintain the pest
population in the field below threshold level, introduction of organic farming, low
premium crop insurance suiting to rain-fed farmers and use of regular training and
extension activities to improve skills and knowledge of these farmers on various
aspects of agriculture.
It has undermined the influence of market forces during determining the output
prices and subsidies and that has led to higher domestic food prices. The input
subsidies were given to reduce some food prices of essential goods, but what it
done is have increased the use of inputs resulting in soil degradation, ground water
depletion etc. Gradually, the subsidies have contributed to fiscal deficits. Also,
direct interference of government agencies has discouraged the private sector
participation in marketing of commodities and market regulation.
While the amount used in subsidies also could have been used for getting better
technology and improving the quality of inputs available in order to increase the
competitiveness also improve the productivity at the same time. Indias regulatory
and policy systems have always favored the production of Foodgrains, thus by
hindering vertical coordination in the value chain as well as the development of its
horticultural industry. Also the subsidy amount could have been utilized in research,
education and infrastructure under the guidance of central government as currently
most of them come under the jurisdiction of state governments. As we know that
India is a highly decentralized system of governance until recently been discovered
that it has been the main obstacle while undertaking fundamental reforms in this
sector.
India announced its 1st comprehensive agricultural policy in 2000, under the name
of the National Agricultural Policy (NAP). Its aim is to achieve 4% annual growth in
agriculture sector within two decades. But since its announcement the whole work
to be done is only on the papers, nothing significant has been done to implement it.
In 11th five-year plan India has acknowledged the problem of increasing subsidy in
the budget, but has done nothing to reverse the trends. However some steps have
been taken to make the market more responsive:
displacement of small farmers who are incapable of meeting the quality demands
set by the retail giants and will gradually be driven out of the market. Until, these
things are honed to perfection, India will not become the global leader in FDI. So,
what can the country do is to focus on maximizing political and social stability along
with coming up with better regulatory environment. But there are some stiff
challenges that larger FDIs in India faces, such as:
Resource challenge, India has huge amount of resources of which some are
still underexploited or unexploited. These are well distributed in both rural
and urban areas. The focus is to increase infrastructure 10 years down the
line which require US$ 150 billion. This is the first step to overcome
challenges facing larger FDI.
Equity challenge, India is a developing at a faster pace but still its
developments have taken place unevenly as urban areas are getting more
attention than the rural pockets which still are inadequately exploited. Thus
by fostering social equality we can achieve a sustainable economic growth.
Political challenge, there should be a common ground between the
parliament and the foreign countries investing in India so that it would help to
improve FDI with the support of the political structure.
Federal challenge, very important, the need is to accelerate the
implementation of rules, policies and regulations at the same time keeping
policies in all the states at par.
Country should focus on the areas of trade, banking and insurance
liberalization and poverty reduction also, because trade relations with foreign
investors will always bring in new challenges in investments.
Currently there are several prevailing problems of food which we can put in three
dimensions, as
It is easily available
Its not easily accessible
The absorption of food
There is no problem over food scarcity but rather lack of money which
problematizes the entire situation. The main cause behind that is the inadequate
purchasing power which is due to insufficient opportunities for gainful employment.
The thing that make the situation more worse is whatever food is accessible, is not
absorbed into the body because of pesticides, chemicals and lack of nutrients.
Meeting the worlds food security challenge will require a multinational collaborative
effort to integrate the best research and technology from science, engineering and
socioeconomics so that it can bring benefits where they are most needed. An
alternative solution which can be considered is, analyzing the contribution of
different industrial inputs and environmental factors to assess the realizable
potential of the genetically superior cultivars, where the actual realization will be
governed by technologies adopted with respect to the three factors of
There have been traces of Heavy usage of inorganic fertilizers, and the
various adopted methods have been affecting the soil quality and the human
health.
It has been observed that Less water is being used with less efficiency i.e.
inorganic methods used in green revolution does not consider using water
efficienctly.
Heavy dependence on NPK fertilizers which is three component fert.
(Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium)- still the state of Punjab is consuming
most amount of these fertilizers. While traditional practices used avoid such
dependency on these synthetics
Recommendations
Everything else can wait, but not agriculture. The quote was stated by our former
Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, in the sense of creating the importance of
agriculture in the mind of people. Looking back on our progress in agriculture since
1947, India is still waiting to achieve food security.
Dr. M.S. Swaminathan a pioneer in Indian Agriculture, often addressed as "Father of
the Green Revolution in India" is known for his leadership and success in introducing
and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in India. The green
revolution in 1960s mostly in the part of western India has led to significant increase
in yield of many food grain crops and helped India to lead from a begging bowl to a
leading food grain exporter in the globe. But the main problem that lies ahead is the
ever-increasing population, decrease in land holdings and degrading quality of farm
lands.
According to National Commission on Agriculture, out of the total geographical area
of 3,287,263 Mha, approximately 148.09 Mha land is degraded land. India occupies
about 2.4% of the worlds total land area; it supports over 16.7% of the entire global
population. The combination of an increasing GDP, population growth, urbanization
and industrialization are imposing a pressure on the quality of our soils as well as
leading to conversion of agricultural lands for non-agricultural purpose. Farmers are
using fertilizers based on their affordability and availability, also multi-cropping is
Large use of inorganic fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides which are useful for short
term benefits but they deteriorate the soil and water quality. Ground water table
which is crucial for human health is affected by use of inorganic chemicals. The key
differences and analysis of the two farming practices is described below.
Advantages of organic farming:
More efficiency Organic farming practices rely on natural energy sources unlike inorganic methods
where huge amount of nitrogenous, potash and phosphate NPK fertilizers are used
India is the major importer of potash fertilizer and Punjab which is the major state in
terms of fertilizer consumption all this is adding to on farm cost and on top of this it
also affects our motherland and other health hazards. While organic practices avoid
using these fertilizer and use traditional methods like compost, farm waste
utilization. Bio gas, bio fertilizers and organic farming practices like mulching to
control weeds as well as to save the moisture content of soil. Also the energy
consumed while producing these inorganic fertilizers adds to GHGs greenhouse gas
emission and thus pose greater challenge for the human beings.
Healthier soil
Soil quality is an important factor while going for any type of crop production.
Different soil have different profiles, some are rich in humus content like Indian
gangetic planes while black cotton soils used for cotton production in the
Maharashtra belt. Thus it becomes vital to keep improving or maintain the soil
health for better crop productivity as soil provide essential nutrients, minerals for
plant growth. Now the use of synthetic chemicals inhibits certain nutrient uptake by
the plant roots also it affects the pore space and air and water quality in the soil
thus each year the land which is depend on inorganic farming practices loses its
nutritional value and soil health.
Farm waste utilisation
Organic farming utilizes different on farm waste like sugarcane bagasse, compost
from different residue of plants and mulching with natural means like bigger plants
can protect in conserving moisture conservation, better farm practices crop
utilisation.
Organic certification
it is the process of certifying organically produced crop, seed and food products. The
certification criteria varies from country to country. In India national programme on
organic production NPOP was launched in the year 2000 by GOI. It implements
national standards for organic production. Various stages inspection, compliance
needs to be done while producing organic food and getting certified.
Low productivity though the organic farming practices improves soil heath
but overall productivity of farm as compared to a farm that is applying
inorganic nutrients is less as artificial methods re used for getting short term
benefits.
Less convenient for large scale farmers farmers growing crops commercially
prefer convenient methods better techniques without considering impact on
environment thus they will prefer aircraft pesticide spray for their farms
rather than depending on organic methods which will require huge labour if
hand weeding has to be carried out in the whole farm.
Conclusion
After the liberal reforms the country has been growing steadily and has transformed
itself in global scenario. The opening of the economy has led to higher incomes and
greater, better and more diversified demand. However, the major concern is the
slow growth of agriculture, India still carries the legacy of its past centrally-guided
closed economy. Policy crisis, specially its implementation has been a major concern
and growing subsidies that has weaken the economy further. So, fundamental
reforms are needed to utilize the real potential of agriculture in India. However the
constitutional conflicts and inter-state rivalries has worsen the situation in the
country. Some critical prospects from Indias context in agriculture are water
scarcity and valuation, reforms in commodity price policy, public and private
investment in rural infrastructure and logistical services, and the level of
government involvement and potential crowding out of private initiatives in the
marketing and trade of agro-food products. But regardless of all that and the path it
takes, still India will be considered as significant player in global market and in
multilateral trade negotiations due to its population size and its agricultural
resource base. India could be a huge market for agro-food products and also a
formidable competitor, but the need for the nation now is to grow and open trade
policies and try to implement it successfully.
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