Role and Problems of

INDIAN AGRICULTURE
ABDUL SAMEER PM
 Introduction
Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian
economy.
Despite our major emphasis on the industrial
development, agriculture continues to occupy
an important place in our economy
 Role of Agriculture
1.Share in national income:
Although the share of agriculture in the total
national income has been gradually decreasing on
account of development of the secondary and
tertiary sectors it's contribution continues to be
significant.
In 1950, the share of agriculture was 55.3 % but it
has been decreased to 37.9 % in 1980-81 to 14 %
in 2011 is
The more developed a country is the lesser is the
contribution of agriculture.
 Role continue:
2. Largest Employment Provider:
Major source of lively hood in India
In 1950-51 69.5 % of working population Engaged in
this sector
It fell to 66.91 % in 1990-91, 56.7 % in 2001 and 49 %
in 2014
The greater independence of working population on
agriculture indicates the underdevelopment of non-
agricultural activities in the country.
3. Contributes to industrial development:
Agriculture provides raw materials to leading
industries such as cotton textiles and sugar industries.
Not only this the workers in industries depend on
agriculture for their food. Agriculture also provides
the market for a variety of industrial goods.
 Role continue:
4. Source of Food Supply: it provides basic foods
to 1.21 billion people in India
5.Importance in international trade
A number of the agricultural commodities like
tea, coffee, spices and tobacco constitutes our
main items of exports.
These amount to almost 50% of our total
exports.
Hence agriculture provides foreign exchange
which helps us to buy machines from abroad.
It also maintains a balance of payments and
make our country self-sufficient.
 Role continue:
6. Contributes to capital Formation:
the role of agriculture in enhancing the capital
formation is vital because it is the largest
employment provider
7. Role of Agriculture in economic planning
Agriculture helps to eradicate poverty
Agriculture helps to curtail inflation
Agriculture helps to generate more employment
opportunities
Agriculture helps to attain inclusive growth
Agriculture helps to reduce regional disparities
 Role continue:
8.Promote Development of tertiary sector:
Tertiary sector provides helpful services to the
industries and agriculture like banking,
warehousing etc.
Internal trade is mostly done in agricultural
produce.
For example, various means of transport get bulk
of their business by the movement of agricultural
goods.
 Role continue:
9. Revenue to the government:
State government get a major part of their
revenue in terms of land revenue, irrigation
charges etc.
Central government also earns revenue from
export duties on the agricultural production.
Moreover our government can raise substantial
revenue by imposing agricultural income tax.
However this has not been possible due to some
political reasons
 Role continue:
10. Internal trade:
agriculture plays a important role in the internal
trade.
It is because of the fact that 90% of our
population spends 60% of their income on the
purchase of the items like food, tea, milk etc.
Prof. Gunar Myrdal has rightly remarked, "It is
the agricultural sector that the battle for long
term economic development of India will be
won or lost.
In fact the prosperity of agriculture is the
prosperity of Indian economy.
We should not build industries at the cost of
agricultural land.
 Problems of agricultural Sector
agricultural Sectors performance is not at the
desired level, following are the major problems:
1.Poor farming techniques
Farmers are adopting orthodox and inefficient
methods for cultivation
Only very few are using improved techniques like
tractors, seed drills, harvesting machines etc
Primitive techniques leads to low productivity
2.Inadequate use of inputs
Using less quality seeds
most of them have no financial ability to buy HYV
seeds and better fertilizers
 Problems Continue
3. Absence of crop Rotations:
crop rotation is important to keep the fertility of
the soil, but farmers are illiterate and also not care
about it
4. Inadequate irrigation facilities:
irrigation facilities are Inadequate and more than
60 % of the cultivable area depends monsoon and
rain fall
It may leads to crop failure
 Problems Continue
5. Lack of organised agricultural marketing
Proper marketing facilities are crucial for the sectors
growth
Farmers are comelled to sell their products at lower
prices, bcz of perishable nature
No cold storage and ware housing facilities
The presence of middle men reduces the remuneration
to farmers
6. Instability in agricultural price
Volatility in agricultural production due to dependence
on monsoon -> Unstable prices
Better harvesting but poor condition of farmers
 Problems Continue
7. Sub-division and Fragmentation of Holdings
Size of agricultural land is un-economic, small and
fragmented
It adversely affects the productivity
Mechanisation and improved technology is not
happening in small agricultural holdings
8. Feudal Character of Production
Presence of Zamindari system -> exploitation of
farmers
Defective land tenure system
Unequal distribution of land
9. Low productivity of Agricultural labour:
decrease in productivity
 Problems Continue
10. Pressure of heavy population on agricultural
sector
Majority of population still Depend agriculture
Disguised Unemployment
11. Agricultural indebtedness:
farmers have no collateral -> they approach money
lenders, land lords for loan at high interest rate
This debt passes from generations to generations
12. Poor implementation of Land Reforms:
the splendid objective of land reforms like land to
the tillers became futile due to improper
implementation of Land Reforms