Importance of Agriculture in India and Its Challenges

In a country like India where over 50% of the population is dependent on agriculture, it can easily be called one of the most important economic activities. The primary source of earning for roughly 159 million families in the country is agricultural activity. The agriculture sector in India has to feed 1300 million hungry mouths in the country – and it does. Obviously, the importance of agriculture in India can’t be overstated. 


The Biggest Challenges

Despite having such a large percentage of the population being involved in agriculture, the sector’s contribution to the GDP is just about 16%. This is one of the numerous anomalies that plague the agriculture sector. As high as the percentage of the workforce involved in agriculture is, the returns don’t justify it.

One of the effects of this skewed ratio has been poverty of the agriculture sector workforce. Though there are measures like Minimum Support Price for the crop of farmers, they are not enough to alleviate poverty levels in the farming sector workforce. 

Add to this the fact that most of the farmers hold very small pieces of land and their misery is multiplied. Natural calamities like drought, floods and erratic rains make it worse for the farm sector workers.

Roles of The Government, The Farmer and The Private sector 

Though the efforts of the government and the farming sector have ensured that the amount of crop per hectare of land has gone up substantially, wastage of raw stock has become a significant problem due to lack of cold storage. This problem can be solved with the help of the food processing companies that can create their own cold chains and process a lot more raw stock and save them from going to waste.

Some steps have been taken in this direction with companies like Jain Farm Fresh working in tandem with farmers to help solve some of these problems through contract farming and sustainable practices.

The good news is, successive governments have been increasingly aware of the importance of agriculture in India. Well formulated policies and further initiatives can go a long way in helping the process in improving the overall health of the agriculture sector.

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