Roadmap For Agricultural Sector In India

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy as it provides livelihood to a large section of the population.

- Karanbir Singh

The agriculture sector provides employment to more than 50% of the country's workforce and accounts for 18% of India's GDP. More than 70% of the rural households depend on agriculture for their livelihood. As per the Union Budget proposal for FY 202021, the government has allocated Rs. 2.83 lakh crore for agriculture and allied activities, irrigation and rural development.

Current scenario

In India, more than 50% of agricultural households do not own more than one acre of agricultural land and 85% of the Indian farmers are landless, marginal and small farmers owning not more than 5 acres of agricultural land.

In major parts of India, there is over-exploitation of underground water, overuse of farm inputs viz. fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, etc., saturated yield/acre, increased pressure on agri land, continuous crop rotation of wheat and paddy over the last few decades, lack of crop diversification due to government policies for providing minimum support price and marketing arrangements for wheat and paddy only and all these culminating to rising farm debts and ultimately leading to distress among farmers. Debt-ridden farmers are committing suicides.

There is problem of salinity and alkalinity in many parts of India due to soil texture and due to excessive use of inorganic fertilizers over a period of time.

In Northern India, stubble burning is going on unabated. Laws have been enacted but could not be implemented in true sense resulting in suffocation and respiratory ailments like asthma etc.

Agricultural economy and the way forward