Dr. Parveen Kumar
Agriculture in the country is a way of life for millions. India is a country of villages and for majority of the population residing in the countryside; agriculture is the main source of livelihood. As the country has already crossed 75, it is celebrating ‘Azadi ka Amit Mahotsav’. As the country is heading towards celebrating 100 years of freedom, we have now entered ‘Amritkaal’. In ‘Tryst with Destiny’ considered being one of the greatest speeches of 20th century; delivered by Pt. Jawaharlal Lal Nehru on the eve of independence, the late Prime Minister had said, ‘At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over. And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world.’
As a result of the hard work and labour of our citizens, the last 75 years have witnessed several historical transformational changes occurring in all the sectors. India acquired the nuclear capabilities, conquered space, ensured food security for all and brought revolutionary changes in health, education, housing, sanitation and all other sectors. Since Aug. 15, 1947 to Aug. 15 of 2023, as country completes 76 years of independence and celebrates 77th year of its independence, we can look back with satisfaction and pride that the country has been able to wipe out the tears and do away with the sufferings of many.
There was a time when ‘Triage” principle was applied to agriculture as there was no hope of meeting our food grain requirements In all these years of country’s journey post independence, the agriculture sector has been the country’s strength in its contribution in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, in providing employment to the population and as a source of livelihood for the vast majority of population living in villages. From a production of 50 million tonnes in the post independence years, the production has now crossed the 300 million tonnes mark. It was 314 million tonnes in 2021-22. This has been achieved through a mix of technologies, interventions in agri and allied sectors, policy support and various legislations and reforms
Today the county has a vast network of agriculture institutes with largest number of men power. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) as an apex body coordinating, guiding and managing research, extension and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country with more than hundred ICAR institutes, 74 agricultural universities and more than 730 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) spread across the length and breadth of the country is one of the largest national agricultural systems in the world. The ICAR has played a pioneering role in ushering green revolution and subsequent developments in agriculture in India through its research and technology development. This has enabled the country to increase the production of food grains by 5.6 times, horticultural crops by 10.5 times, fish by 16.8 times, milk by 10.4 times and eggs by 52.9 times since 1950-51 thus making a visible impact on the national food and nutritional security.
The horticulture production in the country has exceeded food grains production in the country. The country has the largest area under cultivation. It is the largest producer of pulses, spices, milk, tea, cashew, jute, banana, jackfruit and many other commodities (FAO). It stands second in production of fruits and vegetables, wheat, rice, cotton and oilseeds. India is now the world’s leading rice exporter; accounting for more than 40% of the global rice trade as per the data for the FY 2023 speaks. India has the largest cotton cultivation area all over the world after China and the USA and it is the prime agriculture commodity or fiber crop worldwide. India is the third highest potato producing country. India is also the second largest producer of Pulses in the world. In 2013, India contributed 25 per cent of the total pulses production of the world, the highest for any country. The country also has the largest livestock population. The 535.8 million livestock in the country constitute 31 per cent of the world’s livestock population and the milk production in the country accounts for 22 per cent of the global produce. The consistent increase in food grains production has increased the per capita food grains availability from 144.1kg/capita/year in 1950-51 to 185.4 kg/capita/year in 2020-21 despite a compounded annual growth rate of population at 1.93 percent. The main contribution to the per capita availability has been from wheat whose per capita availability increased from 24 kg/capita/year to 66.9 kg/capita/year in 2021-22.
Despite so many milestones in the agriculture sector, the sector is still plagued with so many issues. Although we have ensured food security for all, yet nutritional security is where we have to do a lot. The nutritional insecurity is still manifested in the form of poverty, hunger, malnutrition, stunting, wasting, anemia and poor growth. The country still witnesses a high prevalence of stunting, wasting, low birth weight, high morbidity and mortality in children and poor maternal nutrition of the mother. This continues to be major nutritional concern in India.
India’s performance on key malnutrition indicators is poor according to national and international studies. According to UNICEF, India was at the 10th spot among countries with the highest number of underweight children, and at the 17th spot for the highest number of stunted children in the world. Malnutrition affects chances of survival for children, increases their susceptibility to illness, reduces their ability to learn, and makes them less productive in later life. India’s children are anemic (58%), indicating an inadequate amount of hemoglobin in the blood. This is caused by a nutritional deficiency of iron and other essential minerals, and vitamins in the body. Malnutrition is not only confined to children. Among adults, 23% of women and 20% of men are considered undernourished in India. On the other hand, 21% of women and 19% of men are overweight or obese. The simultaneous occurrence of over nutrition and under-nutrition indicates that adults in India are suffering from a dual burden of malnutrition (abnormal thinness and obesity). This implies that about 56% of women and 61% of men are at normal weight for their height.
Among the other major issues confronting the agriculture sector, climate change and a chemical intensive agriculture are most important.. The negative impact and threat posed to our environment by large scale indiscriminate use of synthetic fertilizers and plant protection chemicals to increase the yields are now clearly visible. The ground water has been rendered poisonous and contaminated with harmful chemicals. Such is the infestation that vast stretches of land extending up to kilometers is now not fit for any drinking water. Soils have been degraded, turned barren and a large number of biodiversity has been lost. The biodiversity loss, toxicity of air, degradation of soil, desertification, climate change and many other challenges that today the agriculture sector today is confronted with can be attributed to the indiscriminate use of chemicals and our unsustainable practices used in agriculture. We have now to move towards an evergreen revolution based on the pillars and principles of sustainability which include:
a. Best use of local resources: Agriculture becomes sustainable only when it is based on the recycling of local resources. Such recycling reduces our dependence on external inputs. The technologies like compost and vermicompost which recycle the farm, animal and kitchen waste into high quality organic manure are examples of how without any monetary investment we can utilize them in our fields much to the benefit of our environment.
b. Remunerativeness: Another pillar of sustainability is that it results in remunerativeness. Ensuring profitability is at the core of this pillar. Farming today is being largely perceived as a non remunerative sector and as such no one is interested in carrying this ancestral profession. A lot of work has already been done where farmers can maximize their yields with lower cost of cultivation. Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), Organic farming, Zero/No Till Farming are some of the examples of remunerative technologies which bringing sustainability in the agriculture sector.
c. Environmental Integrity: Unfortunately, most of the interventions till a few decades back were based on the maximum use of external inputs. These had a negative effect. Of late the government has come out with a detailed programme and policies to minimize the negative environmental impact of such technologies and to replace such technologies with environmental friendly ones.
d. Social equality: Over the years, the disparity between incomes of those engaged in farm sector and those in non-farm sector has been increasing. It can be termed as a collective failure that the income of the marginal and small farmers could not be augmented. Now the government through the integrated farming system model, financial inclusion, provision of timely credit, crop insurance and through various other pro farmer programmes have been incentivizing the marginal and small farmers with the ultimate aim of augmenting their incomes.
e. Entrepreneurship: A sector is said to be sustainable if it has the potential to create job opportunities and absorb the young talent in it. India has the advantage of demographic dividend and with a huge youth power whose energy can be channelized in a positive way by skilling them in agriculture related enterprises. The government through various programmes is also providing the necessary hand holding and financial support to these aspiring young persons’ to set up their own ventures. This way many of the youth have become successful agri-preneurs providing employment to many others.
(The author can be reached at [email protected]).
