Fate of agriculture in India
Answers
Indian agriculture is in a way, a victim of its own past success - especially the Green Revolution. shows the dark reality of the Indian agricultural sector at present.
The green revolution, which is often characterized by the introduction of HYV seeds and fertilizers, undoubtedly increased the productivity of the land considerably. But the growth in the productivity has been stagnant in recent years, resulting in a significant decline in the income of farmers.
There have also been negative environmental effects in the form of depleting water table, emission of green house gases and the contamination of surface and the ground water. Needless to say that agricultural sector is in state of distress, which is severely affecting peasants and marginal farmers and urgent policy interventions are required to protect their interests.
The first major barrier to overcome is declining productivity. In order to cross the declining productivity barrier there is need to herald a rainbow revolution by making a shift wheat-rice cycle to other cereals and pulses.
Since wheat and rice coupled with other crops are backed by minimum support price and input subsidy regime, there is huge incentive for the farmers in the irrigated region of Northwest India to grow these crops.
The second major barrier is the scarcity of two major resources for agriculture - cultivable land and water. While the cultivable land per person is declining because of the fragmentation of farms due to rising population.
India also has less per capita water as compared to other agrarian countries.
Given this scenario, it is time to make a shift to micro irrigation so that the efficient and judicious use of scarce water resources can be made.
One of the major barriers to boosting farm productivity is the lack of new technologies and major breakthroughs. Government should thus woo the private players by giving them incentives to play a major role in agricultural research and development,
If we really want to save the future of our farmers and permanently cure the ills of Indian agriculture, major policy interventions have to be made at the earliest.
Answer:
To give stagnant agricultural growth a boost, a shift must be made from concentrating on the food security to focusing on the farmers' income security.
Indian agriculture is in a way, a victim of its own past success - especially the Green Revolution. shows the dark reality of the Indian agricultural sector at present.
The green revolution, which is often characterized by the introduction of HYV seeds and fertilizers, undoubtedly increased the productivity of the land considerably. But the growth in the productivity has been stagnant in recent years, resulting in a significant decline in the income of farmers.
There have also been negative environmental effects in the form of depleting water table, emission of green house gases and the contamination of surface and the ground water. Needless to say that agricultural sector is in state of distress, which is severely affecting peasants and marginal farmers and urgent policy interventions are required to protect their interests.
The first major barrier to overcome is declining productivity. In order to cross the declining productivity barrier there is need to herald a rainbow revolution by making a shift wheat-rice cycle to other cereals and pulses.
Since wheat and rice coupled with other crops are backed by minimum support price and input subsidy regime, there is huge incentive for the farmers in the irrigated region of Northwest India to grow these crops.
The second major barrier is the scarcity of two major resources for agriculture - cultivable land and water. While the cultivable land per person is declining because of the fragmentation of farms due to rising population.
India also has less per capita water as compared to other agrarian countries.
Given this scenario, it is time to make a shift to micro irrigation so that the efficient and judicious use of scarce water resources can be made.
One of the major barriers to boosting farm productivity is the lack of new technologies and major breakthroughs. Government should thus woo the private players by giving them incentives to play a major role in agricultural research and development,
If we really want to save the future of our farmers and permanently cure the ills of Indian agriculture, major policy interventions have to be made at the earliest.