The farming industry is one of the most significant aspects of the Indian economy, with current revenue of approximately US$ 370 billion per year. According to the latest data for 2020-21, the agricultural sector's GDP figure is around 19.9% in 2020-21, up from 17.8% in 2019-20 time in India. It is a considerable increment from previous years. Mainly, Agriculture provides a living for about two-thirds of India's populace. The importance of agriculture to those who actively depend on it can never be ignored. With the established agricultural methods and supporting regulations, the government has taken significant strides to help and strengthen the agriculture industry throughout the previous years.
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| Image by Nandhu Kumar from Pixabay |
India has been endowed with vast expanses of fertile land, in 15 Agro-climatic zones, according to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). India is the world's leading producer of milk, spices, pulses, tea, cashew, jute, wheat, rice, oilseeds, sugarcane, fruits and veggies, and cotton.
The contemporary improvement of technology in agriculture is successfully helping to accelerate growth by ensuring greater crop yields and improving the sustainability of agriculture.
Increasing population and high land use have become the main threat for reducing agricultural contribution to GDP. In India, the effects of population growth, rising average income, and globalization would increase demand for more, better, and healthier food and a more comprehensive range of meals. As a result, the need for more food in greater quantity, variety, and quality will continue to rise on dwindling cultivable land.
Agriculture's future is a critical issue for policymakers and all other stakeholders. The government and other organizations are attempting to resolve the fundamental challenges of agriculture in India. Small-scale farming, primary and secondary processing, supply chain, the infrastructure supporting efficient resource use and marketing, decreasing market intermediaries, and working on cost-effective solutions that protect the environment and conserve our natural resources.
The Indian Farmers are facing critical problems over the decades. They are still the government trying to make solutions and options for these.
- 85% of Total Holdings of Agriculture comes out of small and marginal scale farms less than ha of land size. (Average Land Size is 1.15 ha)
- Unorganized Middlemen for purchasing inputs and selling outputs to the market may affect the price and quality of the products.
- Less use of knowledge and technology, machinery for farming
- Less value-added product comparison to developed countries. (Always sell as a raw product.)
- Poor infrastructure facilities make the low-quality overpriced products.
According to the research facts, 70% of farmers in India operate on less than one hectare of land. When it comes to farming, size is essential for all the process stages throughout the season. Smaller holdings, on average, lose money because their household expenditures exceed their income, which includes a portion from non-farming activities. The smallest farms can stay in business since they do not compensate for labour, rely on family, and typically consume a large amount of what they produce. But these two categories cannot make a significant impact on market price and can't reach for good income.
Currently, India has a new trend of Privatization of croplands as the small-scale farmers can't bear the expenditures with this economic crisis. These Privatization and globalization changes had a more significant impact on the supply market. After 2003, agricultural marketing reforms changed how agrarian products were sold by allowing private sector investment with emerging markets and crop insurance.
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| Photo by Kolkata hodophile |
The Indian government has brought a number of measures to enhance the productivity of the field with modern technology and knowledge. They have involved digital agriculture for their farmlands. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), as well as remote sensing, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT), are revolutionizing agricultural value chains and modernizing processes. While other nations, like the Netherlands, Australia, the United States, and Israel, have effectively implemented and utilized digital technologies to revolutionize agriculture.
The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model is anticipated to support the future adoption of digital agriculture in India. But shortly, different projects have planned to launch field trials and use such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning AI/ML algorithms. These can generate real-time actionable insights to help farmers with high crop yield, control pests, assist in soil screening, provide farmers with actionable data, and reduce labour costs in a vast range. Even the initial investment is too high; large-scale farmers are trying to move to machinery and modern farming methods. It gains a higher yield by targeting export market quality.
Even several constraints showed up throughout the country and time. Still, India has the best climate condition and soil quality parameters to grow a range of crops throughout the year.
A few key trends are expected in 2022 in India. One would be the demand for fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, and fish like nutritious food materials. India would take the lead for the above product with government support and improved infrastructures. Also, research works and implements those findings to achieve crop targets by making minor changes to processor input or treatments. Another critical trend would be precision agriculture. There should be more applications for water-conserving methods like drip irrigation, irrigation, hydrolyzation, drone usage for seeding, fertilizer application, and mapping of cropland before each stage of growing crops in the newest trend practised.
Conversion of regular agricultural practices into mechanized farming; low-cost machinery, portable equipment can be afforded by the government. As a result, farmers move on to modern methods, and GDP contribution from Agriculture will rise soon. Also, maintenance of price standards for each product and input materials in the marketplace will substantially impact and motivate farmers to keep working on their farming. In near future, India will become the number one food producer in the world with low cost of production and high-quality standards. Government involvement and change in farmers' attitudes to change their traditional methods of farming are the key targets that India has to achieve. Sharing knowledge and experience with farming communities through small scale demonstrations and practicals is one of the popular methods currently in India. Even though this country has numerous resources, farmers need guidance to manage them sustainably for the future.
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