Emerging Indian Agriculture

With the introduction of Green Revolution in 1960s and consequent generation of agricultural surplus, a new trend of commercialization started emerging in the Indian agriculture which was contrary to the traditional subsistent nature. Conscious farmers today grow crops not exclusively for their own use but for selling the same in the market and obtain as much profit as possible.

They are not interested in the cultivation of those crops which are non remunerative or whose yields are very low. The decline in the area of coarse grains may be cited as an example. Pulses which have comparatively longer growing period and lower yield also fail to get favorable treatment. Higher remunerative prices in non-food crops are encouraging farmers to go for horticulture, floriculture, sericulture, pisciculture, apiculture and similar activities as a result of which the area under food crops is declining in some areas.

Diversification
Another emerging trend in the Indian agriculture is leading towards diversification which is opening up the prospects for dairying, horticulture, truck farming, floriculture, aquaculture, sericulture, apiculture and agro-forestry etc. This has been made possible due to the development of irrigational facilities as a result of which multi-cropping has become the order of the day. Farmers can no longer afford to go forfallowing. Instead they prefer crop-rotation on scientific lines i.e., nitrogen consuming crops (cereals) followed by nitrogen fixing crops (pulses and beans) or striking a proper combination of tree crops-cereal crops, horticulture, animal husbandry, pisciculture etc.

Among horticultural products grapes, mangoes, oranges, bananas and apples etc. have great export potential. Export of grapes from Maharashtra to the Gulf countries is an encouraging feature. Most of the horticultural products face the problem of glut at the time of harvest.

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In economic terms, relative changes in prices of different crops also may effect substitution. In the Indian context, rice, wheat, maize, millets and pulses are the major food crops. Oilseeds, sugarcane, cotton, jute & mesta, and potatoes are the major cash crops. Tobacco,chillies, ginger, onion, turmeric, tapioca, sweat potatoes, etc. are minor cash crops. Among plantation crops tea, coffee and rubber are important. We observe that cereals and pulses occupy about 3/4th of the area under cultivation. A clear trend in an increase in the percentage of area under cash crops is discernible. Plantation crops occupy a very small percentage (less than 1%) of the total area under crops. Among the food crops, area under wheat has the highest growth rate followed by maize, rice and pulses in that order. The growth rate of area under millets is negative. Among the major cash crops, area under potatoes has grown fastest, followed by oilseeds, sugarcane, cotton and jute in that order. Among the food crops, wheat exhibited the highest growth rate of yield per hectare. Maize followed wheat. These two crops experienced over three fold increase in the yield rate. Rice experienced a little less than three fold increase in the yield rate. Millets and pulses also showed about 30-35 percent increase in the yield rate. Introduction of high yielding varieties in wheat, maize and rice coupled with an improved irrigation facilities led to the said spectacular increase in the yield rates of these crops. Among the major cash crops, cotton, sugarcane and jute exhibited two-fold increase in their yield rates. The percentage contribution of change (increase) in yield rate is the most dominant component of agricultural growth. The percentage contribution of change (increase) in the gross area under cultivation was the second most potent factor of agricultural growth.

Need for updating technologies:
A country like India is experiencing growth in all sectors including population and more mouth to be fed in coming years. When we talk about growth we need to consider infrastructure growth also. So our land is limited but we need more food and good infrastructure to meet growing population demands. This situation was faced by all developed countries at some stage where we have a population which is educated and attracting them towards agriculture production needs technology up gradation. Labour challenge is also becoming headache for advanced growers so their solution lies in introducing new machineries for agro sector.

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For instance, rice is commercially very profitable crop in case of north India where we grow quality rice (Basmati) sold at a higher price in India and exported to developed countries. Main challenge farmers facing in term of rice is labour shortage at the time of transplanting.Currently, scientists are working on direct seeded technologies but this comes with its own share of problems in areas of weed and water management. Similar situations were faced in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea around 20 years ago but they slowly replaced current manual practice with mechanical way of transplanting. We have similar situation and only remedy is accepting new technologies like mechanical transplanting. Similarly in case of Vegetables production, farmer’s main challenges comes for pest management along with crop establishments under unfavorable weather conditions. With the introduction of Poly House technology, now farmers are earning manifold than previous open field production. Poly house giving them flexibility for sowing regardless of weather situation and we are getting quality produce as compared to open field conditions.

Advantages of technology implementation:
With new production technologies we can attract young generation to adopt agriculture as career.

Also we can produce much more from a similar piece of land to feed grow
ing population.

We can get quality produce which can provide more money to growers.

Market channel will also improve as educated grower can decide his market preferences and it cuts some unwanted channels in between for profit generation.

source:agriculturetoday.in