Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is unquestionably the largest livelihood provider in India, more so in the vast rural areas. It also contributes a significant figure to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Sustainable agriculture, in terms of food security, rural employment, and environmentally sustainable technologies such as soil conservation, sustainable natural resource management and biodiversity protection, are essential for holistic rural development. Indian agriculture and allied activities have witnessed a green revolution, a white revolution, a yellow revolution and a blue revolution.Currently, around 47 per cent of India’s population depends on agriculture for a livelihood. And for most of the 21st century, India will remain an agricultural society. One cannot underplay the role of agricultural growth in improving rural incomes and securing India’s food and nutritional needs. Our population is expected to be 1.4 billion by 2020. The increasing population, coupled with growing income will generate increased demand for food grains and non-food grain crops. Therefore, Indian agriculture has to achieve a higher growth rate targeted at 4 per cent per annum on a sustainable basis. In recent years much emphasis has been given by the Ministry of Agriculture on commercializing Indian agriculture and it is working on strategies to achieve 4 per cent annual growth rate. These include focus on potential areas, regionally-differentiated strategies, crop diversification and the scientific management of natural resources. The new initiatives in the form of National Food Security Mission and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana taken by the Ministry of Agriculture will rejuvenate this sector. Adequate production and distribution of food has become a high priority and global concern. In the fast changing world and increasing competition in a globalized economy, there is a need for exploiting the available resources to the maximum level and use of best technologies available world over, to cope up with domestic demand of food and also to target export market. North India, specifically Punjab and Haryana, is the most advanced and flourished region of India in terms of technological advancement and adaptation of new technologies by the farming community.
0 comments:
Post a Comment