India is the world’s second largest agricultural producer. Agriculture is vital to India’s economy. Agriculture provides a living for more than 70% of rural households. Agriculture is a significant sector of the Indian economy, accounting for roughly 17% of total GDP and employing roughly 58% of the workforce.
Agriculture is the federal and state governments’ primary source of revenue. Rising land revenue generates significant revenue for the government of the country. Furthermore, agricultural goods movement generates revenue for Indian railways, which aids the government in revenue generation.
Problems With Indian Agriculture :-
Irrigation –
Despite being the second-largest irrigated nation in the world after China, irrigation barely covers one-third of cropland. Irrigation is the most crucial agricultural input in India, a tropical monsoon country with unpredictable, inconsistent, and variable rainfall. Until more than half of the cropped area is placed under guaranteed irrigation, India’s agricultural development will not be sustained.
Climate change –
The agriculture sector in India is vulnerable to climate change. Higher temperatures reduce crop yields and promote weed and pest growth. Climate change can have a negative impact on irrigated crop yields across agro-ecological regions due to temperature rises and changes in water availability. Rainfed agriculture will be primarily impacted by rainfall variability and a reduction in the number of rainy days.
Modern agriculture –
The majority of farmers in India favour employing conventional agricultural practises to grow their crops. Food crops like wheat, rice, and bajra take up 75% of the farmed land, while commercial crops occupy the remaining 25%. The foundation of outdated agriculture is this pattern. Moreover, relatively little mechanization is used in Indian agriculture.
Agricultural Marketing –
Rural India’s agricultural marketing is still in terrible shape. Farmers must sell their farm products at throwaway prices to local intermediaries and dealers because there are no effective marketing tools in place.
Storage –
Storage facilities are scarce or non-existent in rural locations. Farmers are forced to dispose of their crop in these circumstances as soon as it is harvested at market prices, which are generally low. These distressed sales cause the farmers to lose their legitimate income.
Agriculture labors –
Most of India’s agricultural laborers endure poor living conditions. The issue of excess labor or false unemployment is another. As a result, wage rates are below the bare minimum.
Conclusion :-
Indian agriculture faces many challenges, including irrigation, climate change, marketing, and storage of agricultural products. All of these issues can be solved with ease through effective marketing, proper irrigation augmentation and management, adoption of new technologies, and making them easily accessible to farmers.
Agriculture is the most widely practiced occupation. It employs roughly 61% of the population. It generates 25% of national income.
Agriculture is a significant part of the Indian economy, accounting for 17% of GDP and employing more than 60% of the workforce.
Farmers’ needs should be prioritized, and more people should be able to access services like crop insurance and financing. This will ensure that the agricultural sector is sustainable and meets the country’s needs. It is critical to take steps to mitigate the agricultural population explosion by diversifying the sector and the rural economy as a whole through the encouragement of rural non-farm businesses.