1. Agriculture is the backbone of India's economy, with two-thirds of the workforce depending on it. However, agricultural growth rates have been lower than planned in the past decade. 2. Small farm sizes, environmental degradation, and unsustainable use of water resources have hindered agricultural productivity. 3. Policies need to shift subsidies towards investment, adopt new technologies, and incentivize sustainable farming practices to boost agricultural growth while protecting the environment.

1. Regd No:-02EE/Ph.D/13Dept.Of Extention Education
Name of the Scholar:-BIBHU SANTOSH BEHERA,Ph.D (Extension
Education)
OUAT Bhubaneswar, Odisha2013

2. As the bed rock of India’s Economy, agriculture and its allied activities have
remained the focal point of the India’s planned economic development. In fact,
two- thirds of the country’s workforce deriving their livelihood from agriculture
and allied activities, the performance of this sector still holds the key to
improvements in real incomes and living standards of the bulk of the India’s
population. Despite phenomenal diversification of the country’s economy, this
sector even now constitutes the largest contribution to the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). Thus, there can be no sustained growth of Indian economy
without broad based progress of our agriculture.
Agriculture produces 51 major crops, provides raw materials to country’s agro-
based industries and fetches approximately one-sixth of total export earnings.
India is a rich endowment of nature. India has diverse agro-climatic regions,
large arable land, suitable fertile soil qualities, abundant sunlight, and spread of
monsoon rains, comparative advantage in global markets and a receptive and
resurgent farming community. Our climate, being moderate, enables us to grow
two to three crops a year, whereas in most parts of the world, due to severe
winters only one crop can be grown a year.

3. During the first decade of the Millennium the rate of growth of agricultural
output was lower than the planned output. The Planning Commission of India
fixed a target growth rate of four percent per annum for the 11th plan. The target
of four percent growth in GDP from agriculture and allied sectors was felt
necessary to achieve overall GDP growth target of nine percent per annum
without undue inflation and generate exportable surplus. Also global experience
reveals that growth originating in agricultural sector is at least twice effective in
reducing poverty as GDP growth originating in other sectors. There are forward
and backward linkages with the non-agricultural sector.
The annual rate of growth of crop output during 2000-01 to 2004-05 was only
one percent and during 2004-05 to 2009-10 it was 1.7 percent. These growth
rates were close to the overall population growth rate during the decade. The
growth rates of higher value added sectors (per hectare of land) namely
horticulture, livestock and fisheries outputs were higher. This diversification is
desirable as the shares of horticultural and livestock products increase in food
budgets as households incomes increase. The forestry output growth rate was
lower because of policies related to conservation and sustainable use for forest
resources.

4. The rapid increase in population and slow shift of labour from agriculture to
non-agriculture is evident in the dominance of marginal farms. In 2002-03
nearly 70 percent of the operational holdings were marginal holdings with size
less than one hectare; another 16 percent were small holdings with size between
1-2 hect. (National Sample Survey Report, 2003-2004).The small sizes prevent
farmers from adopting improved agricultural technologies and create barriers for
accessing credit and adopting improved agricultural practices.
India is facing serious environmental stress in her natural resource stocks. Land
desertification and land degradation affect the quality of land, the major capital
input in farming. A study of Ajai et al. (2009) provides information on land
desertification and land degradation in India that out of total geographical area
of 328.73 million hect, 81.45 million hect (24.8 per cent) lands is degraded.

5. A study by Narasimhan and Gaur reveals that during 1995-96 to 2006-07, on an
average, the contributions of surface and groundwater to net irrigated area were
32 percent and 60 percent respectively. There has been a fall in ground water
table due to rapid expansion of tube wells. There is deterioration in water
quality. Biological contamination of surface water sources due to poor sanitation
and waste disposal resulted in incidence of water-borne diseases throughout the
country. Chemical pollution of groundwater, with arsenic, fluoride, iron, nitrate
and salinity as the major contaminants is directly connected with falling water
tables and extraction of water from deeper levels.
There has been a severe erosion of the financial status of the irrigation systems.
At present irrigation revenues cover barely 15 percent of working expenses and
only five percent of total costs and losses. As for agricultural pump sets, zero
marginal pricing of electricity and use of energy inefficient pump sets in most
states discourage energy conservation and overuse of water resulting in
depletion of water and deterioration of the water quality.

6. After stagnation, gross capital formation as percent of agricultural GDP has
been rising from 2004-05. The share of public investment in the gross capital
formation has also picked up from 2003-04.
We need an expenditure switch from subsidies to investments which augment
the quantities and qualities of natural resource stocks. The necessary additional
resources for capital formation can be generated via.
1. phasing out environmentally perverse subsidies such as high subsidies
for urea, under pricing of irrigation water and very low/zero pricing of
electricity for farm pump sets.
2. reducing leakages, and targeting subsidies in the public distribution
system to people below poverty line.
3. rationalization of irrigation charges and agricultural electricity tariffs.
4. introduction of user charges/payment for ecosystem services. The
policy reforms involve a package of technological, institutional and
incentive based reforms.

7. India has developed the institutional capacity for using remote sensing data for
natural resources management. The National Natural Resources Management
System (NNRMS) facilitates optimum utilization of the country’s natural
resources through a proper and systematic inventory of the resource availability.
Some important applications of remote sensing technologies in the agricultural
sector are preparation of hydro-morphological maps showing areas suitable for
targeting points for locating drinking wells ; mapping of wastelands into
different categories; integrated surveys for combating drought; biodiversity
characterization; disaster management support system; assessment of snow-melt
run-off; forest cover mapping; potential fishing zone forecasts; coastal zone
mapping and crop area and production forecasts.
The green revolution helped India in achieving self-sufficiency in food. But the
green revolution is environmentally unsustainable. We need an ecologically
sustainable green revolution. We need more research on appropriate
technologies for coarse cereals, pulses and horticultural crops, especially in arid
and semi-arid areas. The National Mission for Sustainable

8. Agriculture stresses the need for devising strategies to make Indian agriculture
more resilient to climate change. The Mission has to identify and develop new
varieties of crops and especially thermal resistant crops and alternative cropping
patterns capable of withstanding extremes of weather, long dry spells, flooding
and variable moisture availability.
India is emerging a leader in applications of biotechnology to agriculture,
medicine and environment. Application of this technology to agriculture may
result in improving yield, nutritional improvement, increasing shelf life of fruits
and vegetables by delayed ripening, conferring resistance to insects, pests and
viruses, tolerance to abiotic stresses (drought, salt, water-logging) and herbicide
tolerance. There are also concerns about transplanting genetically modified
seeds developed abroad in Indian soil.
Reclamation of salt affected lands, bioremediation of contaminated sites and
conversion of waste lands to productive uses via agro forestry/corporate
management/community based self-governing organizations can increase the
cultivated area and create livelihood opportunities for the poor. Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme offers scope for cleaning
of rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands.

9. We need policies for crop diversification, generation of non-farm opportunities in rural
areas and development of agro based industries. Other policy changes needed are
1. implementation of nutrition based subsidy scheme with fertilizer prices linked to
minimum support prices .
2. creation of Water Regulatory Authority for allocation and rational pricing of
irrigation water as recommended by the Thirteenth Finance Commission .
3. metering of electricity for pump sets and phasing out electricity subsidies.
4. development of payment for ecosystem services e.g., between forest dwellers and
farmers and local bodies in near-by regions for increases in the quantity and quality
of water supplied .
5. targeting agricultural subsidies and concessional agricultural credit only to small and
marginal farmers using unique identification cards.
India’s growth potential and export potential in horticultural products are very high.
At present only about 0.5 percent of the value of horticultural products is exported.
Accelerating India’s agricultural growth exploiting opportunities provided by
globalization is feasible (Kalirajan, Mythili and Sankar, 2001).

10. The suitable policies should be adopted which signal farmers about the social
costs of different natural resources and ecosystem services and incentivize them
to adopt productivity enhancing farming methods and practices, crop
diversification and post-harvest technologies for reducing wastes and better
price realization. Subsidies must be targeted to achieve equity and
environmental sustainability.
Sustainable management of agriculture, forests, fisheries and ecosystem
services is necessary for achieving the goals of intra generational equity and
inter generational equity. As the dependence of the poor on the natural
resource base is relatively higher than for the non-poor, sustainable
management of natural resources helps in poverty eradication. The poor
also benefits more from greater access to clean water, non-timber forest
products and other eco-system services.
For sustainability of agriculture, it is essential to achieve optimal
production with minimal external inputs and enhanced use of non-farm
resources, maintain productivity, reduce the level of production risk,
protect the potential of natural resources, prevent degradation of soil and
water quality, and satisfy human needs. Besides it should give adequate
economic returns and have minimal adverse environmental impact.

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6. Millennium Economic Assessment (2005), Ecosystems and Human
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