Present Position of Agriculture in India

Abstract

Agriculture is facing problem due to monsoon and government has taken certain initiatives to encourage and protect agriculture. The stark observation made in the Economic Survey of 2015-16 that “Indian agriculture, is in a way, a victim of its own past success – especially the green revolution”, shows the dark reality of the agriculture sector at present and the havoc that has been wreaked by the green revolution. The green revolution, which is often characterized by the introduction of a high-yielding variety of seeds and fertilizers, undoubtedly increased the productivity of land considerably. But the growth in the productivity has been stagnant in recent years, resulting in a significant decline in the income of farmers. There have also been negative environmental effects in the form of depleting water table, emission of greenhouse gasses, and the contamination of surface and ground water. Needless to say, the agriculture sector is in a state of distress, which is severely affecting peasants and marginal farmers, and urgent policy interventions are required to protect their interests. The government has responded to the problem by constituting a panel, which will recommend ways to double the income of farmers by 2022. While this may be an overly ambitious target, if we want to boost stagnated agricultural growth a shift has to be made, as finance minister Arun Jaitley said in parliament, from food security of the nation to income security of the farmers. However, there are many hurdles that have to be crossed if we want to achieve this objective.