Indian Agriculture notes for Civil Services Exam

1. Agriculture
Amit Kumar Anand
www.amitkanand.com
September 9, 2016
1 Introduction
• India has 2.4 % land area having 17% of
world population.
• Agriculture accounts for 80% of water
needs; 60% from ground water.
• 52 % workers in Agriculture; 14 % of
GDP.
2 Farmers
2.1 Disadvantages to Farmers
1. Economic Disadvatage: landlessness,
near-landlessness, or small size of owned
or operated holdings.
• Small size of landholdings re-
duces the farmer’s ability to in-
vest in lumpy inputs, or gain from
economies of scale, or have neces-
sary bargaining power in markets
and with service agencies.
• Marginal farmer : land holding < 1
ha (2.5 acre).
• Small farmer : land holding upto 2
ha (2.5 acre to 5 acre).
• 83% farmers are small and marginal.
43% of area under their cultivation.
• 10% of rural households landless.
2. Social Disadvantage: gender (being
women), caste or tribe (belonging to SC
or ST).
3. Ecological or regional disadvantage:
located in regions which are arid, semi
arid, rainfed, disaster prone, poorly irri-
gated or geographically remote.
2.2 Constraints faced by Farmers
1. Poor land access
2. Poor credit access
3. Poor access to critical inputs, such as wa-
ter, power, seeds, and fertilizers/manure.
4. Neglect by extension services and crop re-
search.
5. High production risk and little insurance
coverage.
6. Limited market access. : Small number
of farmers taking advantage of marketing
cooperatives.
2.3 Best Practices
2.3.1 Kudambashree, Kerala
• Kudambshree project in Kerala pro-
vided for land leasing to women SHGs.
Later Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) - a
NABARD scheme - and given financial
and technical support.
2.3.2 Andhra Pradesh Mahila
Samatha Society
• Women’s group farming. Part of Na-
tional Mahila Samkhya Programme.
• Aim is to achieve food security. Only
food crops grown.
2.3.3 The Gambhira farmers’ collec-
tive, Gujrat
• Farming cooperative formed in 1953.
• Cultivation on a stretch of River Mahi by
farmers of four villages.
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2. 2.4 Measures to improve agricul-
ture
• Easing land constraint
1. Land transfer by government to
landless.
2. Facilitating land purchase .
3. Facilitating land leasing including
creation of land bank.
4. Tenancy to be legalized and regu-
lated.
5. Protecting small and marginal hold-
ers from indiscriminate land acquisi-
tion of land for non-agricultural use.
6. Improving land records and gender
disaggregated data.
• Promoting group farming: Advan-
tages of pooling of resources like credit,
equipments, irrigation etc.
1. Incentivize group farming by land
pooling or land leasing.
2. Can be integrated with MGN-
REGA.
3. Kudambshree and APMSS model to
spread.
• Enhancing access to Production In-
puts
1. Development and preservation of
crop varieties.
2. Joint crop planning and input pro-
curement.
3. Non chemical agriculture.
4. Improvement in irrigation facilities.
5. Low cost custom hiring of agricul-
tural machinery.
• Enhancing credit access
1. Financial inclusion.
• Extension, Training and Capacity
Building
1. Training essential for increasing pro-
ductivity e.g.System of Rice Intensi-
fication (SRI).
2. Resource centres to build capacity
and knowledge of farmers on contin-
uous basis especially women farm-
ers.
3. Agricultural Technology Manage-
ment Agencies (ATMAs)
• Risk Mitigation
1. Crop insurance.
2. MSP
• Marketing of Produce
1. Producers Organisations to be set
up. More bargaining power.
2. Amendments in APMC act for
protection for delayed payments
and deliveries, contract cancellation
damages, sharing production risks,
dispute resolution etc.
3. Contract farming linkages.
3 Animal Husbandry and
Dairying
4 Schemes
4.1 Soil Health Card Scheme
• CSS for issuing soil health card to every
farmer.
• report on soil fertility status.
• advisory on soil test based use of fertiliz-
ers and amendments to increase produc-
tivity and profitability.
• SHC to be updated every 3 years.
• soil sample drawn from uniform grid of
2.5 ha in irrigated land and 10 ha in non
irrigated land.
4.2 Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yo-
jana (PKVY)
• to promote organic farming.
• Group of farmers to be promoted to
adopt organic farming. 50 or more farm-
ers to form clusters having 50 acre land.
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3. • adoption of Participatory Guarantee
Scheme (PGS) certification.
• creating facilities for production of
organic manure/ bio-fertilizer/ bio-
pesticides and marketing of produce.
4.3 Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sin-
chayee Yojana (PMKSY)
• extending irrigation coverage “Har Khet
ko Pani” and improving water use effi-
ciency “Per Drop More Crop” in a fo-
cused manner.
• end to end solution on source creation,
distribution, management, field applica-
tion and extension activities.
4.4 Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF)
• CSS with initial corpus of 500 crore
to support market intervention for price
control of agri-horticultural commodities.
• interest free loans to State Governments
and Central agencies.
• procurement directly from farmers or
farmers’ organisation at farm gate/
Mandi.
• Centre State contribution 50:50, in NE
75:25.
4.5 National Agricultural Market
through Agri Tech Infrastruc-
ture Fund (ATIF)
• aimed at migration towards national
market with implementation of common
e-market platform.
• address present challenges in agricultural
marketing especially providing remuner-
ative prices to farmers.
• enhance marketing of produce, improve
access to market related information,
better price discovery, accessing greater
number of buyers through transparent
auction process.
4.6 Schemes for enhancing relief to
farmers due to Natural Disas-
ters
1. National Disaster Response Fund
(NDRF)/ State Disaster Response Fund
(SDRF) norms revised comprehensively.
2. Relief in form of input subsidy.
3. Enhancement in financial assistance to
farmers for crop damage due to natural
calamities.
4. Crisis Management Plan (CMP) for
drought.
5. National Crop Insurance Plan (NCIP)
4.7 Mission for Integrated Develop-
ment of Horticulture (MIDH)
• Subsumes all horticulture development
schemes.
• Research, technology promotion, exten-
sion, post harvest management, process-
ing and marketing.
• Encourage Farmer groups to leverage
economies of scale and scope.
• Augment farmers income and strengthen
nutritional security.
• Improve productivity by way of quality
germplasm, planting material and water
use efficiency.
• Skill Development. Create employment
generation opportunities for rural youth
in horticulture and post harvest manage-
ment, especially in the cold chain sector.
4.8 Farm Mechanisation
• Overall 40-45 % mechanisation.
4.8.1 Farm Mechanisation Areas
1. Tillage & seed bed preparation.
2. Sowing/ Planting
3. Fertilizer Application.
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4. 4. irrigation.
5. Harvesting.
6. Post Harvesting.
4.9 Core issues
1. Adverse Economies of Scale.
2. Weak financial strength of majority of
farmers.
3. Lack of access to credit.
4. Need for promoting appropriate Farm
Equipment: Low cost, region and crop
specific, indigenous technology.
4.9.1 Sub Mission of Agricultural
Mechanisation (SMAM)
• Promoting farm mechanization in small
and marginal farmers.
• Promoting Custom Hiring Centres to
offset the adverse economies of scale aris-
ing due to small landholding and high
cost of individual ownership.
• Creating hubs for hi-tech & high value
farm equipments.
• Ensuring performance testing and certi-
fication.
4.10 Rainfed Area Development
Programme (RADP)
• The Food Bowl of India (North West) is
becoming unsustainable. Urgent need for
“Second Green” revolution from “RAIN-
FED AREAS”
• 60 % of net sown area is rainfed.
4.10.1 Problems in Rainfed areas
4.10.2 Natural
1. Erratic Rainfall, Floods, Droughts, Inad-
equate Irrigation Infrastructure.
2. Land Degradation, Poor Soil Fertility.
4.10.3 Socio-Economic
1. Small Land Holdings, Poor Farmers.
2. Lower Credit off take.
3. Poor Socio-Economic growth, Illiteracy,
Poverty.
• High risk, low yield business.
• High Risk → Less investments in Inputs
→ Low Productivity → Under developed
Market Infrastructure, Poor Post Harvest
Management → High Risk.
4.11 National Food Security Mis-
sion (NFSM)
• increase the production of rice, wheat,
pulses and coarse grains by 10, 8, 4 and
3 million tonnes.
• promote and extend improved tech-
nologies, i.e., seed, micronutrients, soil
amendments, integrated pest manage-
ment farm machinery and implements,
irrigation devices resource conservation
along with capacity building of farmers.
4.12 Integrated Scheme for Agricul-
tural Marketing (ISAM)
The ISAM has five sub schemes namely
1. Agricultural Marketing Infrastruc-
ture (AMI) the erstwhile schemes
of Grameen Bhandaran Yojana
(GBY) and the Scheme for Devel-
opment/Strengthening of Agricultural
Marketing Infrastructure, Grading and
Standardisation (AMIGS) have been
subsumed into AMI sub scheme.
2. Marketing Research and Informa-
tion Network (MRIN) : collect and
disseminate information on price, ar-
rival and other market related data for
the benefit of farmers and other market
stakeholders.
3. Strengthening of Agmark Grading
Facilities (SAGF)
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5. 4. Agri-business Development (ABD)
through Venture Capital Assistance
(VCA) and Project Development Facil-
ity (PDF) and
5. Ch. Charan Singh National Institute of
Agricultural Marketing (NIAM), Jaipur
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