Regd No:-02EE/Ph.D/13Dept.Of Extention Education

Name of the Scholar:-BIBHU SANTOSH BEHERA,Ph.D (Extension

Education)

OUAT Bhubaneswar, Odisha2013

As the bed rock of India’s Economy, agriculture and its allied activities have

remained the focal point of the India’s planned economic development. In fact,

two- thirds of the country’s workforce deriving their livelihood from agriculture

and allied activities, the performance of this sector still holds the key to

improvements in real incomes and living standards of the bulk of the India’s

population. Despite phenomenal diversification of the country’s economy, this

sector even now constitutes the largest contribution to the Gross Domestic

Product (GDP). Thus, there can be no sustained growth of Indian economy

without broad based progress of our agriculture.

Agriculture produces 51 major crops, provides raw materials to country’s agro-

based industries and fetches approximately one-sixth of total export earnings.

India is a rich endowment of nature. India has diverse agro-climatic regions,

large arable land, suitable fertile soil qualities, abundant sunlight, and spread of

monsoon rains, comparative advantage in global markets and a receptive and

resurgent farming community. Our climate, being moderate, enables us to grow

two to three crops a year, whereas in most parts of the world, due to severe

winters only one crop can be grown a year.

During the first decade of the Millennium the rate of growth of agriculturaloutput was lower than the planned output. The Planning Commission of Indiafixed a target growth rate of four percent per annum for the 11th plan. The targetof four percent growth in GDP from agriculture and allied sectors was feltnecessary to achieve overall GDP growth target of nine percent per annumwithout undue inflation and generate exportable surplus. Also global experiencereveals that growth originating in agricultural sector is at least twice effective inreducing poverty as GDP growth originating in other sectors. There are forwardand backward linkages with the non-agricultural sector.

The annual rate of growth of crop output during 2000-01 to 2004-05 was onlyone percent and during 2004-05 to 2009-10 it was 1.7 percent. These growthrates were close to the overall population growth rate during the decade. Thegrowth rates of higher value added sectors (per hectare of land) namelyhorticulture, livestock and fisheries outputs were higher. This diversification isdesirable as the shares of horticultural and livestock products increase in foodbudgets as households incomes increase. The forestry output growth rate waslower because of policies related to conservation and sustainable use for forestresources.

The rapid increase in population and slow shift of labour from agriculture to

non-agriculture is evident in the dominance of marginal farms. In 2002-03

nearly 70 percent of the operational holdings were marginal holdings with size

less than one hectare; another 16 percent were small holdings with size between

1-2 hect. (National Sample Survey Report, 2003-2004).The small sizes prevent

farmers from adopting improved agricultural technologies and create barriers for

accessing credit and adopting improved agricultural practices.

India is facing serious environmental stress in her natural resource stocks. Land

desertification and land degradation affect the quality of land, the major capital

input in farming. A study of Ajai et al. (2009) provides information on land

desertification and land degradation in India that out of total geographical area

of 328.73 million hect, 81.45 million hect (24.8 per cent) lands is degraded.

A study by Narasimhan and Gaur reveals that during 1995-96 to 2006-07, on an

average, the contributions of surface and groundwater to net irrigated area were

32 percent and 60 percent respectively. There has been a fall in ground water

table due to rapid expansion of tube wells. There is deterioration in water

quality. Biological contamination of surface water sources due to poor sanitation

and waste disposal resulted in incidence of water-borne diseases throughout the

country. Chemical pollution of groundwater, with arsenic, fluoride, iron, nitrate

and salinity as the major contaminants is directly connected with falling water

tables and extraction of water from deeper levels.

There has been a severe erosion of the financial status of the irrigation systems.

At present irrigation revenues cover barely 15 percent of working expenses and

only five percent of total costs and losses. As for agricultural pump sets, zero

marginal pricing of electricity and use of energy inefficient pump sets in most

states discourage energy conservation and overuse of water resulting in

depletion of water and deterioration of the water quality.

After stagnation, gross capital formation as percent of agricultural GDP has

been rising from 2004-05. The share of public investment in the gross capital

formation has also picked up from 2003-04.

We need an expenditure switch from subsidies to investments which augment

the quantities and qualities of natural resource stocks. The necessary additional

resources for capital formation can be generated via.

1. phasing out environmentally perverse subsidies such as high subsidiesfor urea, under pricing of irrigation water and very low/zero pricing ofelectricity for farm pump sets.

2. reducing leakages, and targeting subsidies in the public distributionsystem to people below poverty line.

3. rationalization of irrigation charges and agricultural electricity tariffs.

4. introduction of user charges/payment for ecosystem services. Thepolicy reforms involve a package of technological, institutional andincentive based reforms.

India has developed the institutional capacity for using remote sensing data for

natural resources management. The National Natural Resources Management

System (NNRMS) facilitates optimum utilization of the country’s natural

resources through a proper and systematic inventory of the resource availability.

Some important applications of remote sensing technologies in the agricultural

sector are preparation of hydro-morphological maps showing areas suitable for

targeting points for locating drinking wells ; mapping of wastelands into

different categories; integrated surveys for combating drought; biodiversity

characterization; disaster management support system; assessment of snow-melt

run-off; forest cover mapping; potential fishing zone forecasts; coastal zone

mapping and crop area and production forecasts.

The green revolution helped India in achieving self-sufficiency in food. But the

green revolution is environmentally unsustainable. We need an ecologically

sustainable green revolution. We need more research on appropriate

technologies for coarse cereals, pulses and horticultural crops, especially in arid

and semi-arid areas. The National Mission for Sustainable

Agriculture stresses the need for devising strategies to make Indian agriculture

more resilient to climate change. The Mission has to identify and develop new

varieties of crops and especially thermal resistant crops and alternative cropping

patterns capable of withstanding extremes of weather, long dry spells, flooding

and variable moisture availability.

India is emerging a leader in applications of biotechnology to agriculture,

medicine and environment. Application of this technology to agriculture may

result in improving yield, nutritional improvement, increasing shelf life of fruits

and vegetables by delayed ripening, conferring resistance to insects, pests and

viruses, tolerance to abiotic stresses (drought, salt, water-logging) and herbicide

tolerance. There are also concerns about transplanting genetically modified

seeds developed abroad in Indian soil.

Reclamation of salt affected lands, bioremediation of contaminated sites and

conversion of waste lands to productive uses via agro forestry/corporate

management/community based self-governing organizations can increase the

cultivated area and create livelihood opportunities for the poor. Mahatma

Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme offers scope for cleaning

of rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands.

We need policies for crop diversification, generation of non-farm opportunities in rural

areas and development of agro based industries. Other policy changes needed are

1. implementation of nutrition based subsidy scheme with fertilizer prices linked to

minimum support prices .

2. creation of Water Regulatory Authority for allocation and rational pricing of

irrigation water as recommended by the Thirteenth Finance Commission .

3. metering of electricity for pump sets and phasing out electricity subsidies.

4. development of payment for ecosystem services e.g., between forest dwellers and

farmers and local bodies in near-by regions for increases in the quantity and quality

of water supplied .

5. targeting agricultural subsidies and concessional agricultural credit only to small and

marginal farmers using unique identification cards.

India’s growth potential and export potential in horticultural products are very high.

At present only about 0.5 percent of the value of horticultural products is exported.

Accelerating India’s agricultural growth exploiting opportunities provided by

globalization is feasible (Kalirajan, Mythili and Sankar, 2001).

The suitable policies should be adopted which signal farmers about the socialcosts of different natural resources and ecosystem services and incentivize themto adopt productivity enhancing farming methods and practices, cropdiversification and post-harvest technologies for reducing wastes and betterprice realization. Subsidies must be targeted to achieve equity andenvironmental sustainability.Sustainable management of agriculture, forests, fisheries and ecosystemservices is necessary for achieving the goals of intra generational equity andinter generational equity. As the dependence of the poor on the naturalresource base is relatively higher than for the non-poor, sustainablemanagement of natural resources helps in poverty eradication. The pooralso benefits more from greater access to clean water, non-timber forestproducts and other eco-system services.

For sustainability of agriculture, it is essential to achieve optimalproduction with minimal external inputs and enhanced use of non-farmresources, maintain productivity, reduce the level of production risk,protect the potential of natural resources, prevent degradation of soil andwater quality, and satisfy human needs. Besides it should give adequateeconomic returns and have minimal adverse environmental impact.

1. Ajai, A. S., Arya, P. S., Dhinwa, S. K. Pathan and K.G.Raj (2009),Desertification/Land Degradation Status Mapping of India, CurrentScience, Vol. 97, No. 10.

2. Bansapal, P.C. (2002), Economic Problems in Indian Agriculture, CBSPublishers and Distributer, New Delhi-110002.

3. Arrow, K.J., P.Dasgupta, L H. Goulder, K.J. Mumford and K. Oleson(2010), Sustainability and the Measurement of Wealth, National Bureauof Economic Research Working Paper 16599

4. Dasgupta, P. (1993), Poverty and Environmental Resource Base, in AnEnquiry into Well-Being and Destitution, Oxford University Press UK.Reprinted in U.Sankar (ed) Environmental Economics, Readers inEconomics, Oxford University Press, 2001. Paperback: eighthimpression 2008.

5. Sankar, U. (2007), The Economics of India’s Space Programme, OxfordUniversity Press, New Delhi.

6. Millennium Economic Assessment (2005), Ecosystems and HumanWell-Being Synthesis, Island press, Washington DC.