7 Facts You Need To Know About Indian Agriculture
Second most populated country with a population of 1.27 billion.
Seventh largest country in the world with an area of 3.288 million sq kms.
Coastline spread over 7,500 kms.
22 major languages and 415 dialects.
World’s largest producer of milk, pulses and jute
India is the world’s third largest economy worth $ 2.1 trillion after the US and China.
Second largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, groundnut, vegetables, fruit and cotton.
These are some of the amazing facts about India. The last fact as you can see is related to Agriculture. Now this fact might make you believe that Agriculture in India is doing pretty well. But at the ground level, things are different.
7 Facts about Indian Agriculture
- Decrease in Agriculture GDP
- Organic agricultural export market drives greening of agriculture
- Pesticide use increased more than 100%
- Bio-fertilizer production is the future
- Warehousing capacity Increased
- Per capita water availability decreased by 70%
- Not all harmful pesticides are banned
1) Decrease in Agriculture GDP
GDP From Agriculture in India decreased to 4759.48 INR Billion in the first quarter of 2018 from 5666.82 INR Billion in the fourth quarter of 2017.
It averaged 4052.74 INR Billion from 2011 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 5666.82 INR Billion in the fourth quarter of 2017 and a record low of 2690.74 INR Billion in the third quarter of 2011.
Agriculture & Allied sectors which used to contribute 19 percent of GDP in 2004–05 has come down to 14 percent in 2011–12 at 2004–05 prices, according to government data. The percentage has been declining gradually with the passing of years.
From 19 percent in 2004–05, the percentage share of agriculture & allied sectors in GDP dropped to 18.3 percent in 2005–06 and then to 17.4 percent in 2006–07.
It further dropped to 16.8 percent in 2007–08 and 15.8 percent in 2008–09 before reaching 14 percent in 2011–12, the data showed.
But, capital investment in the sector has shown improvement. As per official figures, Gross Capital Formation (GCF) investment in agriculture sector (at 2004–05 prices) has increased from Rs 69,148 crore in 2004–05 to Rs 1,30,907 crore in 2010–11.
Besides, the agriculture sector has shown an average growth rate of 3.3 percent annually in the Eleventh Five Year Plan period ending March 31, 2012 as compared to 2.4 percent per annum during the Tenth Plan.
Food grain production has also shown an increase from 217.28 million tonnes in 2006–07 to 257.44 million tonnes in 2011–12.
2) Organic Agricultural Export Market drives Greening of Agriculture
Organic agricultural export market is one of the major drivers of greening of agriculture in India. The current production of organic crops is around 14,000 tons (2003).
Out of this production, tea and rice contributes around 24% each, fruits and vegetables combine makes 17% of this total production. From India around 11,925 tons of organic product is exported, that makes around 85% of total organic crop production.
Major export market for Indian producers are Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Singapore, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, and USA. Estimated quantity of various products that are exported from India in 2002 is shown.
This shows that around 3000 tons of tea was exported and in quantity term it was the highest, next major exports are rice (2500 tons), fruits & vegetables (1800 tons), cotton (1200 tons) and wheat (1150 tons).
3) Pesticide Use Increased More than 100%
A major input for Indian agriculture is use of various pesticides, like insecticides, weedicides, fungicides, rodenticides etc. As the cropping pattern is becoming more intensive use of these pesticides is also increasing.
Consumption of insecticide in agriculture has been increased more than 100% from 1971 to 1994–95. For instance, insecticide consumption in India, which was to the tune of 22013 tonnes has increased to 51755 tonnes by 1994–95.
Consumption of all of these pesticides in same duration has increased more than two times, that is from 24305 tonnes to 61357 tonnes.
As a consequence of adoption of bio intensive Integrated Pest Management Program in various crops, the consumption of chemical pesticide has come down from 66.36 thousand MT during 1994–95 to 43.59 thousand MT during 2001–02 with a reduction of 27.69%.
One of the consequences of indiscriminate use of pesticide is the adverse health impact on society in general and vulnerable population like children in particular. Some of the well-known health effects of pesticide exposure include acute poisoning, cancer, neurological effects and reproductive and developmental harm.
The major causes of concern in this respect are bio -accumulation of pesticides and the prolonged time period that it takes to express the negative health consequences.
4) Bio-fertilizer Production is the Future
For year 2000, proposed production target for bio-fertilizer was 39,165 Mt, which was only 4.8% of the total estimated demand. But the actual production and the distribution of bio fertilizers are below the targeted. This shows the huge gap between potential market demand and production and also provides an opportunity for bio-fertilizer producers.
The total production of bio-fertilizer in India in 1992–93 was 2005.0 tons and it has increased to 8010.1 tons by 1998–99. Similarly the consumption/distribution of bio-fertilizer has also increased 1600.01 tons to 6700.27 tons during the same time period.
But the growth rate in installed bio-fertilizer capacity is comparatively more stable than the growth rate in total production, consumption & distribution of bio-fertilizers. The total production of bio-fertilizers growth rate had reduced to 12.75% during 1998–99 from 53.82% in 1993–94 and during same period the growth rate of consumption & distribution had reduced to 6.43% from 82.15%.
This is an indication that there is not only a need but also a role for market development for green agriculture inputs in India.
In spite of the impressive growth rate of more than 200% in production capacity and around 300% growth rate experienced in production and consumption of bio-fertilizers in India within 6 years (i.e., from 1992–93 to 1998–99) yet it is only around 1.5% of the estimated demand potential for bio-fertilizers in the country.
5) Increased Warehousing Capacity
Private sector interest in warehousing industry picked up after the “Rural Godown Scheme” was introduced in year 2001–02 under National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).
The warehousing capacity built over past 10 years, especially those sanctioned by NABARD have an average storage capacity per warehouse of 1,261 metric tonne (MT) and around 75% of numbers of godowns have capacity of less than 1,000 MT. The development of small and medium godowns indicates that most of them have been built by farmers or a community of farmers thus ensuring that distress sale is reduced and better prices are paid to farmer for their produce.
Apart from this there are few large national level players which have emerged over the last decade owing to the available capital subsidy. These include National Bulk Handling Corporation Ltd., National Collateral Management Services Ltd., Adani Agri Logistics, Star Agriwarehousing & Collateral Mangement Ltd., Shree Shubham Logistics Ltd., Ruchi Infrastructure Ltd., Guru Warehousing Corporation, Paras Warehousing and LTC Commercial.
6) Per-Capita Water Availability Decreased by 70%
The per capita water availability in the country is reducing due to increase in population. The average annual per capita availability of water taking into consideration the population in various census has come down 70% from 1951 to 2011, in a span of 60 years. The per capita availability of water as per 1951 census was 5177 cubic meters. This is down to 1545 cubic meters as per 2011 census. As per the 2001 census, it was 1816 cubic meters. It has continuously decreased owing to the increase in population
National Commission for Integrated Water resources Development has assessed that with achievement of the desired level of efficiency, the water requirement by the year 2010, 2025 and 2050 will be about 710 BCM, 843 BCM and 1180 BCM respectively. Bulk of this requirement would be for irrigation. As per the Central Water Commission, only 1123 BCM of water is utilizable out of the available water including surface and ground water resources.
7) Not all harmful pesticides are banned
In November 2017, following reports of pesticide poisoning and death of more than 40 farmers in Maharashtra, Kavitha Kuruganti and two others had petitioned the SC to ban 99 pesticides that had been banned or restricted in other countries.
A committee headed by Anupam Verma, a retired professor from Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) was constituted by the Agriculture Ministry in August 2013 to review only 66 such pesticides. The Committee had recommended in 2015 that 12 pesticides be banned and 6 more phased out.
The agriculture ministry had subsequently issued a draft notification in December 2016 on banning the pesticides recommended by the Anupam Verma committee.
But after receiving comments and suggestions to the draft notification, the ministry constituted another committee headed by JS Sandhu of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) to look in to the suggestions and form an opinion on banning these pesticides. The petitioners however had informed SC that the government should consider banning 99 pesticides that were considered toxic globally.
Conclusion
The above mentioned facts are like a star out of a cluster. There are many untold stories and facts In Indian agriculture. While we try our best to bring every single fact in front of you, a little appreciation for our work would keep us going forward always.
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