Jamia Millia Islamia

Faculty of Law

Topic: Situation of Indian Agriculture

Submitted by: Kamran Javeed Shah

Submitted to: Azharuddin Sir
Course: BA LLB Regular Semester 2 (2021-26)
Serial no: 24
Introduction: Agriculture is the principal means of livelihood for around 58 percent of
India’s people. Gross Value Added by agriculture, forestry, and the fishery was estimated at
approximately 19.48 lakh crore (US$ 276.37 billion) in the financial year 2020. Regarding
the first advance estimates of National Income FY22, the percentage share of GDP of
Agriculture and Allied Sectors (at current prices) is 18.8 percent of the total GDP.
The Indian food sector is set for tremendous expansion, increasing its contribution to world
food commerce every year due to the enormous potential for value addition, notably within
the food processing industry. Indian food and grocery market is the globe’s sixth-biggest,
with retail generating 70 percent of the sales. The total agricultural and allied products
exports stood at US$ 41.25 billion in FY21.

The market value of Indian Agriculture: The Economic Survey of India 2020-21 report
indicated that in the financial year 2020, the total food grain output in the nation was
registered at 296.65 million tonnes—up by 11.44 million tonnes compared with 285.21
million tonnes in the financial year 2019. Production of horticultural crops in India hit a
record 331.05 million metric tonnes (MMT) in 2020–21 (per third advance estimate), an
increase of 10.5 million metric tonnes over the financial year 2021. India has the biggest
cattle population of roughly 535.78 million, which amounts to around 31 percent of the
worldwide population. Milk output in the country is predicted to climb to 208 Metric tonnes
in the financial year 2021 from 198 Metric tonnes in FY20, representing a gain of 10 percent
yearly. Land under horticulture is anticipated to expand by 2.7 percent in 2021.
Sugar output in India reached 26.46 Metric tonnes between October 2019 and May 2020
sugar season, as per the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA).
India is among the 15 biggest exporters of agricultural goods in the world. Agricultural
export from India amounted to US$ 38.54 billion in the financial year 2019 and US$ 35.09
billion in the financial year 2020. According to Inc42, the Indian agriculture sector is
anticipated to expand to US$ 24 billion by 2025.  India is the world’s second-largest producer
of rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton, groundnuts, and fruits & vegetables. It also produced 25
percent of the world’s pulses, as of last decade, till 2019.

Problems faced by Indian agriculture: Though a thriving field, Indian Agriculture faces
certain problems. They are:

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 1. Instability: Agriculture in India is heavily reliant on the monsoon. As a result, the
output of food-grains changes year after year. A year of the abundant output of grains
is commonly followed by a year of extreme scarcity.
2. Land Ownership: Although farmland ownership in India is reasonably well spread,
there is some degree of concentration of land holding. Inequality in land distribution
is also related to the fact that there are frequent changes in land ownership in India. It
is claimed that big tracts of land in India are owned by a very tiny fraction of the
wealthiest farmers, landlords, and money-lenders, whereas the great majority of
farmers possess very little or no land.
3. Fragmentation of land holdings: Due to the expansion of population and breakdown
of the joint family structure, there has been a constant sub-division of farmland into
smaller and smaller plots. Poor farmers sometimes have to sell a section of their
property to satisfy their debt. This creates an additional sub-division of land.
4. Irrigation: Although India is the second biggest irrigated nation after China, just one-
third of the planted land is under irrigation. Irrigation is the most significant
agricultural input in a tropical monsoon nation like India, where rainfall is
inconsistent, fickle, and irregular. India cannot achieve sustained success in
agriculture until and unless more than half of the planted area is placed under secured
irrigation.
5. Mechanisation: Despite the large-scale mechanisation of farming in some areas of
the nation, most agricultural activities in bigger sections are carried out by human
hand using simple and customary tools and equipment like a wooden plough, sickle,
etc. Little or no use of machinery is employed in ploughing, planting, watering,
thinning and trimming, weeding, harvesting, threshing, and transporting crops.
6. Disguised unemployment: Due to the joint family system and rural life in most parts
of India, a lot of disguised unemployment is prevalent in the agriculture sector.
Disguised unemployment exists when part of the labor force is either left without
work or is working in a redundant manner such that worker productivity is essentially
zero. In India, many family members work in the agricultural fields without
increasing productivity, thus contributing to disguised unemployment.

Recent government initiatives in the sector: Some of the recent major government
initiatives in the sector are as follows:

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  The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare’s budget has been boosted from Rs.
1.25 lakh crore (US$ 16.20 billion) in 2020-21 to Rs. 1.32 lakh crore (US$ 17.28
billion) in 2021-22.
 NABARD will facilitate the formation of a blended capital fund focusing on the
agricultural start-up ecosystem, which will be used to fund agriculture and rural
enterprise companies tied to the farm product value chain.
 The government supports using drones in agriculture by offering financial help
through the ‘Sub-Mission on Agriculture Mechanization.’
 A network of 729 Krishi Vigyan Kendras has been developed at the district level
across the country to guarantee that newer technology such as enhanced variety seeds
of crops, new breeds/strains of animals and fish, and improved production and
protection technologies reach farmers.
 With a budget of US$ 1.46 billion, the ‘Production-Linked Incentive Scheme for Food
Processing Industry (PLISFPI)’ has been approved to establish global food
manufacturing champions commensurate with India’s natural resource endowment
and to boost Indian food brands in worldwide markets.
 As per Union Budget 2021-22, Rs. 4,000 crore (US$ 551.08 million) was given for
executing Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY-PDMC).

Conclusion: Considering the market value above, it seems that Indian Agriculture is in an
excellent position. However, that is far from true. The increasing prices of agricultural
commodities have not increased the farmer’s income but have led to increasing inflation in
the country. Small-scale farmers are among the poorest people in India. Suicides of farmers
are increasing at an alarming rate due to the failure of crops, high debts, low incomes, etc.
The government has failed to provide adequate safeguards to farmers in this regard. The
government needs to take various steps to increase the GDP share of agriculture. They
include building irrigation facilities, giving more significant fertilizer subsidies, researching
new crop varieties, etc. Only if these steps are taken can the living standards of farmers
improve.

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 Bibliography
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 InsightsIAS. (n.d.). Challenges of indian agriculture. INSIGHTSIAS.
Retrieved 3 July 2022, from
https://www.insightsonindia.com/agriculture/role-of-agriculture-in-
indian-economy/challenges-of-indian-agriculture/
 Ramesh Singh. (2015). Indian economy: For civil services examinations.
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 Sanjeev Kumar. (2020). The state of Indian agriculture: Agricultural
productivity, food security and climate change. Sage.
 What is the importance of agriculture in india? [Find answer at byju’s
ias]. (n.d.). BYJUS. Retrieved 3 July 2022, from https://byjus.com/ias-
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