1
Publication: First Indi al Edition: Ahmedabad Date: December 23,20191 Page No: 021Food & Agriculture DE CE MB ER 23 IS CELEBRATED AS 'KISAN DIWAS ' OR 'N ATIONA L FARMER S' DAY ' EVE RY YE AR , IN THE HONOUR OF CHAUDHARY CHARAN SINGH, THE FIFTH PRIME MINISTER OF IN DIA WHO W AS B ORN THI S DAY T he agr icultur- al sector in In· dia may only account fo r JUSt 18 % of India's gross domestic product, but it holds about 50% of lndia's employment generation. With over 70% of the country's population residing in r ural areas, the sector has always been consid· ered as the backbone of Indian economy. De· spit(l such data , the sec· tor constantly struggles with extreme climatic challenges, along with alarming groundwater crises, and a lack of transparency in the pr icing of goods . Power 01 AI-griculture Sou r ce of Go vern m ent Revenue Outlook Using digital technolo- gy and advanced devic- es is cons idered com· plicated by most farm· ers. The gap between their understanding of the indu stry and the available technologies is the prominent hur· cUe for lndian farmers to adopt newer technol· ogies. Indian farmers re- quire to be digitally Ht - erate along with the help of solution provid- ers. who need to under· stand the limitation of our farmers and create solutions personalised to them. B oth the Cen tral and State Gov. ernments earn sig· nificant revenues (rom the agric ul· ture sector . The ri s· ing land revenue contributes towards a substantial in· corne. There are also other sectors like railways and road- ways that derive a good part of their income from the movement of agri- cultl1Ca..l goods. With all the above points, It can be safely said that agriculture is an essential founda· tion in the country's economy. As per the Economic Survey. agr iculture sector employs mo re than 50 per centof the to· tal workforce in In- dia and contributes around 17-18 per cent to the country's GDP, The report also stated that tn· dian farmers are adaptlng to farm mechanization at a faster rate in com- parison to recent pailt . I ndustry-Government Partnership Smart Farmers is the Need of the Hour Rising Mechanizati on in Agriculture To resolve this. the gov· ernment of India has spent a lot on creating solutions for the agri· culture sector, aiming to boost innovation and en trepreneursh ip. Along with several mentorship courses. the government has also paired up with pri· vate companies lUte IBM and M icrosotl.. over the years to offer solutions to the farm· ers. In 2016. the govern· ment launched eNAM, an onHne platform for farmers with agricul· tlU'al markets online. helping fa r mers to view all agriculture·related information. conunodi· ty pricing. and buying a nd selling of goods. Additionally. the gov· ernment also launched a crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Man· tei Fasai Bima Yojana, T he agriculture sect or em p loys more than 50 per cent 01 assisting farmers with insurance services. NIT! Aayog is another a.dvancement for the agro sector. where the government cOllaborat· ed with IBMtouseAI in developing a crop yield prediction model to pro- vide real-time advisory to farmers . Bosch is another company which is oro· AI ·based solu· tions to farmers. in a statement from Bosch. a company spokesperson mentioned that it is aiming to develop prod· ucts in the fietd of pre· cision agricultur e. smart i r r igation. reo mote sensing technolo- gy. drone applications, and cold storage solu- tions that deem loT. The company's smart irri - gatton controller - Aquazen. is an loT-€na· bled. remotely con- trolled cross-platform the work lor ce in I ndia. It pl ays a vi t al ro le in our overall economy system equipped with big data analrtics. Along with that, there are several start· ups such as SatSure. Croptn. Gold Farll), and Oxen Farm. who are in- vesting heavily in tech- nologies and ma n age- ment so lutions to aid farmers across India. Research shows that approximately 22.50/. of farmers are stW living under the poverty line with 52 .5% under debt, and thus remain poor even during the bumper harvest season. A 2018 survey stated that the percentage of worke rs in the agricul · tural sector would drop to 25 .7% by the year 2050. The sector is in- creasingly lOSing the wor kforce. and the next is moving to a non·farming occupa · tion for better payment. S mart farming is an approach 01 using modern technologies like machine learning. big data, and analytics 10 e nhance Ihe quanlity and quality of the agricult ural sector. The p ower of this tech- nology (loes beyond solving averag e problems 3M s hortcomings o!!armi ng. inslead. it has the possibility of transforming the entire module of the sector aSSisting farmers in sma rt decision making . Some of the key advantages of smart agriculture are: • Precision fa rming • Smart greenhouses .. -. - - •... _ .. .. ........ .. - .. .. .. - .. _ . - Involvement of agricultur e drones for GIS mapping •. with A recent study has shown that smart agri · culture is expected to take up S26.76 bill i on 01 global market size by 2020 and Asia is expected to hold 40% 01 the global market share. Accord- ing to anotherreport. the countl\' also has around 40 startups dealing in smart agriculture. Wi th that said, the key lor any innovation to work is the requirement of knowledge and enough capi lallO i mplement it, and Ind i an farmers lag in both severely. Another imponant._ requirement for any technology to work is the passion to learn and build up professional skills. which is also a struggle fo r Indian farmers who are either illiterate or have elementary education. The Indian agricul tural sector has seen consid- erable progress been made in the fi eld of ago ricultural implements over the past decades. I .... rom using various hand tools like spades. pick axes, crowbars and sickles, Indian farmers have now graduated to using modern agricul - tural implements such as combine harvesters, rice tra ns· plant ers, power tillers. threshers, tractors. pumping sets, etc. The Indian market has several leading tool manufacturing compa- nies who produce the highest quality of agri - cu lt ural implemen ts. Their distribution channels include both B2B and B2C. with B2C having the largest sha r e. Conswners can also buy agr iculture tools online from vari- ous e·commer ce pi ct· forms. The lndian agri· cultural implements market was worth USS 8.5 Billion in 2017 . The market value is further projected to reach USS 12.8 Biltion by 2023, ex· hibitingaCAGRof 7. 03 per cent during 2018- 2023. The agrlc\utural im· plements market in In- dia h as been catego· rized on the basis of product type including tractors. rOt3v ators. threshers and powe r tillers . Agricultur al tractor s dominate t his market. Th e Indian tractor indust r y Is the largest in the world and accounts fol' one-third of the global tractor production. As mecha· nization in this sector continues to rise. too l manufacturing compa- nies are now offering their agriculture to ols online on e ·commer ce sites. This ensures that even the smallest fr ac- tion of farmers can buy required tools and equipment's 011 their will. COMME RCI AL IMPORT ANCE : Over two - thi rds of the working poputation Agricullura! products constitute a large part of the total exports 01 this countlj'. Some of the main items in our export list inctude : in India is engaged directly in the agricul· ties have always held a signif icant : tural sector. As per estimate. about 57 per share in our national income. In : cent of the worklnQ populatIOn IS engaged recent years, the share of contribu· : in agriculture, as opposed to 2 to .3 per cent tion has decli ned gradually with : In U.K. and U.S .A. and 6 per cent In France. the growth 01 ol her indust rial- S OURCE OF FO OD SUPPLY ized sectors In the country. In t950·51 . agricullure and allied activities contributed about 59 per cent of the total nalional income. Agricullurat products are Ihe maior source 01 food supply for the huge population of our country. As per certain estimates. it meets about 60 per cent or household consumption. There are several important industries in India such as cotton and ju te texti les , sugar manufacturing, edible oils. plan- tation industries and many agro·based conage industri es Ihat depend on the agricultural sector lor the supply of their raw materials. These agro-based industries generate about 50 per ce nt 01 income in the manufacturi ng sector, thuS, agri cullure helps in thp. industrial l:1evel opme nt of this country. tea. coffee, su gar, tobacco, spi ces. cashew nuls. etc . These contribute to about 50 per cent 01 t he tolal exports from India. In additio n to agricultu ral products. pr od · ucts from 30m-based industr i es like jute and cott on textil es also co ntribute anot he r 20 per cent to the country's tala! exports . Hence. the agricult ure sector is vital to the counl ry's inter na tional trace.
