1. MANTHAN TOPIC : SOWING PROSPERITY
TEAM DETAILS
Gaurav Bhanarkar Akshay Jadhavar
Vaibhav Arwari Vijay Mali Vitthal Darade
Coping with Inadequate non-firm Services
Providing better storage facilities for farmers
and other institutional help

2. Growth in agricultural output over the past three decades has been
strong and, importantly, crop production has been able to broadly keep
pace with the demands from a growing population (Graph 1). The
introduction of high-yielding seeds (such as improved strains of wheat)
from the mid 1960s and the increased use of chemical fertilisers
epitomised what became known as the ‘green revolution’. Wheat
production increased by nearly 150 per cent between the mid 1960s and
mid 1970s and the
country became self-
sufficient in grain
production by the end
of the 1970s. The
increase in agricultural
production boosted
rural incomes while
also causing food prices
to fall. This had the
effect of reducing rural
poverty (World Bank
2004).

3. There are four goals of agricultural development:
(a) achieve maximum yield
(b) improvement of small and marginal farmers, lagging regions, women etc.;
(c) improve standard of land, labour and maintaining food security;
(d) maintain agriculture sustainability by considering environment factors;
(e) maintaining fertility of land and prevent soil erosion.
The causes for low productivity of Indian agriculture can be divided into 3
broad categories, namely,
(1) General factors, (a) Overcrowding in Agriculture:
(b) Discouraging Rural Atmosphere
(c) Inadequate non-firm Services:
(d) Natural Calamities
(2) Institutional factors , (a) Size of Holding:
(b) Pattern of Land Tenure:
(3) Technological factors (a) Poor Technique of Production:
(b) Inadequate Irrigational Facilities:

4. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF AGRICULTURE IN INDIA, CHINA AND ISRAIEL
Indian agriculture is labour intensive, mostly subsistence farming, nearly 60% of its
population is dependent on farming and most farms are rain fed. On the other hand, Israel
having Only 20% of the land area naturally arable , today agriculture represents 2.5% of
total GDP and 3.6% of exports.
While India’s agricultural sector is growing by about 2.5 per cent; China’s has been steadily
growing at between 4 and 5 per cent over the last 15 years , China with lesser cultivable
land produces double the food grains, at 415 million tons per year compared with India’s
208 million tons per year. China having outperformed India in agriculture are threefold:
(a)technological improvements
accruing from research
(b)development, investment
in rural infrastructure and
(c)an increasingly liberalised
agricultural policy.

5. Research, Extension and Technology Fatigue:
The National Commission on Farmers indicates that there is a large
knowledge gap between the yields in research stations and actual yields in
farmers‟ fields. The yield gaps given by the Planning Commission (GOI,
2007 a) range from 5% to 300% depending on the crop and State.
National Food Security Mission (NFSM) has been launched in 2007 to
increase 20 million tonnes of foodgrains (10 m.t. for rice, 8 m.t. for wheat
and 2 m.t. for pulses) during the 11th plan period. It has already shown
some results by increasing yields in different regions. There is a need to
strengthen this mission to increase productivity.

6. Cont’d ……..
There is a need to shift away from individual crop-oriented research focused
essentially on irrigated areas towards research on crops and cropping systems in
the dry lands, hills, tribal and other marginal areas .In view of high variability in
agro-climatic conditions in such unfavourable areas, research has to become
increasingly location-specific with greater participation or interaction with farmers.
Private sector participation in agricultural research, extension and marketing
is becoming increasingly important especially with the advent of biotechnology and
protection being given to intellectual property. However, private sector
participation tends to be limited to profitable crops and enterprises undertaken by
resource rich farmers in well endowed regions.

7. Therefore, the public sector research has to increasingly address the
problems facing the resource-poor farmers in the less endowed regions. The
new agricultural technologies in the horizon are largely biotechnologies.
Similarly, there is a need to strengthen extension. The ATMA (Agricultural
Technology Management Agency) scheme was launched in 2005 to support
state governments‟ efforts to revitalize the extension. This scheme gives an
opportunity to improve extension system. The returns to investment on
research and extension will be much higher on agricultural growth as
compared to other investments.
Land Issues:
small size of farm is responsible for low profitability of agriculture. On land
market, the Report of the Steering Committee recommended the following.
“Small farmers should be assisted to buy land through the provision of
institutional credit, on a long term basis, at a low rate of interest and by
reducing stamp duty. At the same time, they should be enabled to enlarge
their operational holdings by liberalizing the land lease market. The two
major elements of such a reform are: security of tenure for tenants during the
period of contract; and the right of the land owner to resume land after the
period of contract is over” (GOI, 2007).

8. Merits of the proposed solution in comparison to the existing
alternative
(a) Security of small farmers from zamindaars loan
(b) Increase of technology use in agriculture field
(c) Provide employebility to chemical and biotech engineers
(d) Increase in scope of innovations in agriculturul field
(e) Interdisciplinary work of government and private sector increses
Basically, we have to ensure land
leasing, create conditions including
credit, whereby the poor can access
land from those who wish to leave
agriculture. There are some
emerging land issues such as
increase in demand for land for non-
agricultural purposes including
special economic zones,
displacement of farmers, tribals and
others due to development projects.
There is a need for careful land
acquisition. Land alienation is a
serious problem in tribal areas.

9. BUILDING A INTERCONNECTED
NETWORKING FOR MONITORING
CORE COMMITTEE AT STATE LEVEL
INSPECTION AND
RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
SUB COMMITTEE AT
DISTRICT LEVEL
DIFFERENT ENGINEERS
AND EXPERIENCED
PERSON
DIFFERENT VOLUNTEERS
AND AGENTS
DIRECT TO SITE
DEPARTMENT
SMALL FARMERS

10. The main objectives of this department will be :
To maintain good To keep a check on
relationship between Sub committee at district
consumers and producers. level and Inspection and
research department and
Proper planning according check progress.
to different crop season in India.
Keep a check on corruption at
different levels
Proper arrangement of funds and
other required stuffs To stop partiallity and injustice
against farmers
CORE COMMITTEE AT STATE LEVEL

11. This committee will look after for
employment of more and more local
persons as co workers and volunteers
.
It will maintain connection between
workers and central committee for
more progress and efficient help.
This will monitor the work of
volunteers and work as a leader for
co workers .
Solve small disputes of farmers .
It will provide amenities given by
central committee to the different
volunteers.
The main objective of this department
is to do as much as possible research in
agricultural field.
To solve the problem related to fertility
of land of that area.
Continuous inspection of land fertility
and maintain fertility of land.
To plan for modern pesticides and
develop bio fertilizers .
Regulate the productivity of land
and prevent overuse of it.
To promote use of eco friendly
fertilizers and modern techniques.
INSPECTION AND
RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
SUB COMMITTEE AT
DISTRICT LEVEL

12. The most important work is of
volunteers and co workers .
They help to maintain healthy
relationship between government
and producers.
They are the one who will directly
contact with the farmers.
It will help the small farmers to
express their feelings .
They will communicate producers
sufferings to higher level and will look
for solution as early as possible.
This department will promote
employability of engineers and will also
assist experienced retired social worker.
The engineers will take care of problem
of productivity and will try to improve.
Their main motive will be to look for
small scale technical solution of
problems related to farmer by
investment of small bucks.
The experience persons work will be to
give their best mental and inspirational
support to producers.
Volunteers will try to help small
farmer to improve their standard of
living by providing proper knowledge
about their farming work.
DIFFERENT ENGINEERS
AND EXPERIENCED
PERSON
DIFFERENT VOLUNTEERS
AND AGENTS

13. Small farmers can be called as the
producers . They are the one who
are suffering and require proper
attention of government .
This department will have some
volunteers who will directly go on the
site and help farmers regarding their
problem.
They will also educate them about
how to increase their productivity and
what is the role of farming in
economy.
This department member will provide
solution directly on the site .
They will be the one who will transfer
modern techniques knowledge to the
producers
DIRECT TO SITE
DEPARTMENT
SMALL FARMERS

14. Impact of the solution
(a) Agricultural productivity will be increased as more land is used for
cultivation purpose rather than just kept empty .
(b) Which ultimately increase GDP rate (by extra contribution of agricultural contribution
like China)
(c) Small farmers life will be
improved
(d) % of waste government
land will decrease
(e) Ultimately it will increase
beauty and reduce pollution
Impact of this method can be
noted directly by measuring :
less cost of crops in market ; reduction of inflation rate ;
agricultural productivity of area ; increase in per hectare production of crops;
increase in overall productivity of state and country .

15. SCALABILITY OF SOLUTION
This solution needs large scale contribution of every institution from central
level to individual level . This method can be applied more efficiently at state
level and then complete monitoring to central government can be passed .
Monitoring mechanisms
A core committee fully dedicated on this method should be developed at
central level . This committee will have to monitor all sub areas ie. On
district level
And there should be a sub committee at district level which will look after
the land maintenance and providing help to farmers .

16. Means to mitigate the identified challenges
(a) Proper Subsidies and Investments
(b) improvements in flow of farm credit
(c) Diversification to Hi-value Agriculture and Marketing
(d) there should be some form of contract arrangements in several
agricultural crops such as tomatoes, potatoes, chillies, gherkin,
baby corn, rose, onions, cotton, wheat, basmati rice, groundnut,
flowers, and medicinal plants.
(e) there should be improvement in the share of small and marginal
farmers;
Challenges
(a) Workers use at private department should be well educated otherwise
it will lead to a big chaos in management .
(b) If any of the links get disturbed whole plan will get affected
(c) Private and government institutes must do their best in all way
(d) Financial problem may get arised , but should be managed
(e) Role of central office should be appreciable

17. Appendix
References:
(a) Policies for Raising Agricultural Growth and
Productivity in India by S. Mahendra Dev
(b) International Atomic Energy Agency Information
Series
(c) COMPARATIVE STUDY OF AGRICULTURE IN INDIA,
CHINA AND US by Dr.S.Vijay Kumar
(d) Indiastat – Revealing India statistically
(e) Indian agriculture review: Ghana 2009-2010
outlook
(f) My agriculture information bank