The Future of Indian Agriculture - SSC, RRB Dictation matter

Agriculture in India is livelihood for a majority of the population and can never be underestimated.

Although its contribution in the gross domestic product (GDP) has reduced to less than 20 per cent and contribution of other sectors increased at a faster rate, agricultural production has grown. This has made us self-sufficient and taken us from being a begging bowl for food after independence to a net exporter of agriculture and allied products.

Increasing population, increasing average income and globalization effects in India will increase demand for quantity,  quality and nutritious food, and variety of food. Therefore, pressure on decreasing available cultivable land to produce more quantity, variety and quality of food will keep on increasing. 

India is blessed with large arable land with 15 agro-climatic zones as defined by ICAR, having almost all types of weather conditions, soil types and capable of growing a variety of crops.

In spite of all these facts, the average productivity of many crops in India is quite low. The country’s population in the next decade is expected to become the largest in the world and providing food for them will be a very prime issue. Farmers are still not able to earn respectable earnings.

Future of agriculture is a very important question for the planners and all other stakeholders. Government and other organizations are trying to address the key challenges of agriculture in India, including small holdings of farmers, primary and secondary processing, supply chain, infrastructure supporting the efficient use of resources and marketing, reducing intermediaries in the market. There is a need for work on cost-effective technologies with environmental protection and on conserving our natural resources.

The reforms towards privatization, liberalization and globalization affected inputs market at a faster pace. Agricultural marketing reforms after 2003 made changes in marketing of agricultural outputs by permitting private investment in developing markets, contract farming and futures trading, etc. These amendments in marketing acts have brought about some changes but the rate is less.

Along with this, the information technology revolution in India, new technologies in agriculture, private investments especially on research and development, government efforts to rejuvenate the cooperative movement to address the problems of small holdings and small produce etc are changing face of agriculture in India.

Many startups in agriculture by highly educated young ones show that they are able to understand the high potential of putting money and efforts in this sector. Cumulative effects of technology over the next decade will change the face of agriculture.

Advantageous weather and soil conditions, high demand for food, untapped opportunities, various fiscal incentives given by the government for inputs, production infrastructure, availability of cheap credit facilities and for marketing and export promotion are attracting many individuals, big companies, startups and entrepreneurial ventures to do a lot of investments on innovations, inventions, research and development and on other aspects of business.

The efforts are being done to convert all the challenges in agriculture into opportunities and this process is the future of agriculture. 

Key trends expected:

1. Changing demand due to increase in incomes, globalization and health consciousness is affecting and going to affect more the production in future. Demand for fruits and vegetables, dairy products, fish and meat is going to increase in future.

2. Researches, technology improvements, protected cultivation of high value greens and other vegetables will be more. There will be more demand of processed and affordable quality products.

3. More competition will be there among private companies giving innovative products, better seeds, fertilizers, plant protection chemicals, customized farm machinery and feed for animals etc. in cost effective ways at competitive prices giving more returns on investment by farmers. Use of biotechnology and breeding will be very important in developing eco-friendly and disease resistant, climate resilient, more nutritious and tastier crop varieties.

4. Some technologies will be frequently and widely used in future and some will become common in a short time while some will take time to mature. For producing the same products in other way so as to use resources judiciously and using new resources also like hydroponics, use of plastics and bio-plastics in production. There will be more of vertical and urban farming and there will also be efforts in long term to find new areas for production like barren deserts and seawater.

5. Precision farming with soil testing-based decisions, automation using artificial intelligence will be focused for precise application inputs in agriculture. Sensors and drones will be used for precision, quality, environment in cost effective manner.

Small and marginal farmers will also be using these technologies with the help of private players, government or farmer producer organizations (FPO). Use of GPS technology, drones, robots etc. controlled by smart phones etc. can make life of farmers easy and exciting with good results. These advanced devices will make agriculture be more profitable, easy and environmental friendly.