Agriculture in India has a long history. Since more
than 10,000 years majority of Indians are dependent on the industry. As
agriculture is counted the main business of most of the people, it plays
a significant role in the overall socio economic development of the
country. According to the Annual Report 2009-2010 of the Ministry of
Agriculture the total geographical area of India is 328.7 million
hectares of which 140.3 million hectares is net sown area, while 193.7
million hectares is the gross cropped area.
Among world nations, India is the largest producer of
fresh fruits. It mainly produces Sesame seeds, fennel, badian, jute,
cashew nuts, pulses, ginger turmeric, mangoes, chillies and peppers.
India holds the second largest population of cattle. It has around 281
million cattle.
It holds the second position in producing cashew,
cabbage, cotton seed, fresh vegetables, garlic, cardamom, onions,
wheat, rice sugarcane, tomatoes, coconut, ground nut, tea, green peas,
cauliflower, potato and inland fish.
The Indian Agriculture
Research Institute (INRI) was established in 1905. INRI was responsible
for the research leading the Indian Green Revolution of the 1970s. The
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is the apex body in
agriculture and related fields. They have to look after all researches
and education of the related field. The union minister of Agriculture is
the president of ICAR. The Indian Agriculture Statistics Research
Institute looks after and develops new techniques, and they design the
experiments, analyses data in agriculture and they develop the
strategies to get maximum from animal and plant breed. However,
Government of India has set up Farmers Commission to completely evaluate
the agriculture program but still farmers are facing some problems.
According
to World Bank: Indian Branch the allocation of water is insufficient
and unsustainable. The irrigation infrastructure is deteriorating. At
some places the overuse of water is currently being covered by pumping
facility but as these are falling by foot of underground water each
year, this is a limited resource. Secondary, farmers in India are mostly
illiterate, socially economically backward or incapable of developing
new ideas. They are inadequate or inefficient to implement fast and
progressive actions. Farmers are facing the problems of finance and lack
of marketing services for farm produce. Still as agriculture being the
Indian business, future of agriculture in India is bright.
Government
is taking active interest in agriculture and it is giving the highest
priority to it. The Tenth Plan allocation was comparatively lower than
11th Plan. The 11th Plan is considerably higher over the 10th plan. An
amount of US$19 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of
Agriculture during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Agriculture is one of
the strongholds of the Indian economy and accounts for 14.6 percent of
the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009-2010, and provisional
percent of the total export is 10.23 percent. Moreover, the agriculture
sector, provides employment of 52 to 55 percent of the work force.
As
per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) farm output will
grow by 10 percent to 114 million ton (MT) in the Kharif season, while
in winter season (Rabbi Season) is expected to increase 2 percent that
will be around 116.6 MT. According to Agricultural and processed Food
Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) India’s exports of fruits,
vegetables, cereals and processed food products was worth US$
1.14billion during April May 2010-11. Middle East, Asia, Africa, and
South America are developing countries in which 70 percent of the
India’s agriculture and processed food is being exported.
This data makes it absolutely clear that Indian Economy
is largely governed by the Industry, which is still largely dependent
on the uncertainties of rainfall and other natural forces. We have a
social responsibility to support the agricultural industry in every possible manner.
URL :
http://www.made-from-india.com/article/Agriculture-Industry-In-India-821.html