Question

Despite long years of independence, India has been facing major challenges in agriculture sector.
In light of this statement, critically analyze the role of government to improve agricultural sector of the
country.

Answer 1

Agriculture in India is largely depends on monsoon. As a result, production of food-grains fluctuates year after year. A year of abun­dant output of cereals is often followed by a year of acute shortage.

This, in its turn, leads to price income and employment fluctuations. However, for the thirteen year, in successive (1987-88 to 1999-00) a normal monsoon has been observed.

Problem # 2. Cropping Pattern:

The crops that are grown in India are divided into two broad catego­ries: food crops and non-food crops. While the former comprise food-grains, sugarcane and other beverages, the latter includes different kinds of fibres and oilseeds.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

In recent years there has occurred a fall in agricultural production mainly due to fall in the output of non-food articles. Moreover rabi pro­duction has become as important as kharif pro­duction in the late 1990s. In 1999-2000, for exam­ple, of the total grain production of 209 mn. tones, rabi accounted for 104 mn. tones. This indicates a structural change in agricultural production.

Problem # 3. Land Ownership:

Although the owner­ship of agricultural land in India is fairly widely distributed, there is some degree of concentration of land holding. Inequality in land distribution is also due to the fact that there are frequent changes in land ownership in India. It is believed that large parcels of land in India are owned by a- relatively small section of the rich farmers, landlords and money-lenders, while the vast majority of farmers own very little amount of land, or no land at all.

Moreover, most holdings are small and uneco­nomic. So the advantages of large-scale farming cannot be derived and cost per unit with ‘uneco­nomic’ holdings is high, output per hectare is hec­tare is low. As a result peasants cannot generate sufficient marketable surplus. So they are not only poor but are often in debt.

Problem # 4. Sub-Division and Fragmentation of Hold­ing:

Due to the growth of population and break­down of the joint family system, there has occurred continuous sub-division of agricultural land into smaller and smaller plots. At times small farmers are forced to sell a portion of their land to repay their debt. This creates further sub-division of land.