Role of Agriculture in Economic Recovery

Context : Agriculture and rural sector can pay huge contribution in the economic recovery after the pandemic.

Background

In the context of India, agriculture and allied sectors contribute only 17% of the GDP while employed 51% of the total workforce. As Indian economy has depressed during the ongoing pandemic period, reflected by the fact of economic contraction by 23.9 per cent, but agriculture’s contribution to GDP has somehow increase, it is still the largest employment source and a significant piece of the overall socio-economic development of India.

If we rectify the major challenges in the agriculture and allied sectors, it certainly will help in coming out of current economic depression.

Present Picture of Rural Economy

Agriculture is still the major occupation of the people living in the rural areas. Around 70% of India’s population live in rural areas and their major activity is agriculture, and major productive asset land. For the rural population, it is the control and ownership of land that determines their well being. Therefore, ownership and control of land are of prime essence to millions of people.

Promoting sustainable livelihoods for the poor remains a key challenge in development policy and action in India. Sustainable Water resource development and management and watershed management is still the most widespread and robust source of expanding and enhancing rural livelihoods.

Major Problems Agriculture in India is Facing

Instability

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.

Irrigation

Farmers also suffer due to lack of irrigation facilities. More­over, ordinary varieties of seed can be replaced by better varieties if there is an assured supply of water. Tthe present prob­lem is one of discovering cheap and easy methods of utilising these vast supplies of water.

Almost 90 per cent of India’s groundwater goes into irrigation and is grossly over-extracted. In Punjab, water tables have been falling by over 2.3 ft/year since 2000, propelled by free electricity and no meters (only West Bengal meters groundwater use). By 2030, 65 per cent of India’s blocks will be over-extracting groundwater (World Bank).

A 2014 government study for 13 states found it significantly reduced water and fertiliser use, while raising wheat yields by 25 per cent, and vegetable yields by 52 per cent. However, only 10 per cent of India’s cropland has micro-irrigation. Regulated irrigation expansion will increase yields, cropping intensity and high-value crops.

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.

Land Ownership

Inequality in land distribution is 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.

Sub-Division and Fragmentation of Land 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.

Sub-division further leads to the fragmentation in holdings. With decreasing size of land holding, cultivation becomes uneconomic.

Land Tenure

The land tenure system of India is also far from perfect. In the pre-independence period, most tenants suffered from insecurity of tenancy. They could be evicted any time. How­ever, various steps have been taken after Independ­ence to provide security of tenancy.

Agricultural Laborers

The conditions of most agricultural laborers in India are far from satisfactory. There is also the problem of surplus labour or disguised unemploy­ment. This pushes the wage rates below the sub­sistence levels.

Other Problems

There are various other problems of Indian agriculture that are

•  Systems and techniques of farming.
• Marketing of agricultural products.
• Indebtedness of the farmers.
• The Necessary Reforms

At present, India’s agriculture has the capacity to provide a long term and stable solution concerning the economy. However, the mediators or even the lack of knowledge is hindering its advancement. Thus, important to bring about a few reforms that aid the stabilizing of the sector.

Construction of Check dams.

• Privatization of the markets in the agriculture sector.
• Credit must be easily accessible to the cultivators.
• Provide incentives depending on the production.
• Improvise supply chain and storage of harvest.
• Ensure the farmers attain a fair price share of value from the produce.
• Providing equal weight age to horticulture by allocating incentives.
• Additionally, credit subsidies, power subsidies, fertilizer subsidies are very important.
• Remove middlemen and provide minimum support prices for majority of produce.

Conclusion

The need for the construction of minor irriga­tion works of a local nature is both urgent and pressing. In fact, the total water potential in the country is more than adequate to irrigate the whole areas under cultivation.

Since the Indian society is predominately agrarian in nature, any attempt towards alleviation of poverty and creation of employment necessarily needs to address the problems of effective and optimal management of land and water in an integrated manner. India has sufficient natural resources to support respectable life standard to its citizens, provided their utilization pattern is optimized and management streamlined.

Connecting the Article

Question for Prelims : Consider the following statements, with reference to the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices:

1. It is an autonomous body.
2. It decides the Minimum Support Price for agri-produce.

Which of the following statements is/are correct ?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Question for Mains : How can agriculture sector support other sectors of the economy amid current challenges? To what extent measures taken by the government are capable of addressing the agricultural unrest? Discuss.