AGRICULTURE

Importance of Agriculture

1. Social

• Food security: Agriculture is practiced to improve food security in a country.
  • Example: FCI procurement has far exceeded the buffer stock limit, and India has food grain reserves 2.7 times more than what is required.
• Food for human beings: Provides food including vegetables, fruits, and meat that can be consumed by human beings.
• Food for animals: Animals also feed on food grown through agriculture.
  • Example: Hay, fodder, silage, etc.
• Tackle malnutrition: Good agricultural production helps to provide food for all and assists in tackling malnutrition.
• Raise living standards of rural population: The standard of living for rural masses rises with better nutrition, including eggs, milk, ghee, and fruits, leading to a comfortable life with modern amenities.

2. Economic

• Source of livelihood: Many people spend their lives working in agriculture, including farmers, agronomists, and transporters.
• Employment opportunities: The agricultural sector is a major employer in many countries.
• Raw materials: Agriculture produces essential raw materials for manufacturing.
  • Example: Sisal, cotton, bamboo, etc.
• Trading commodity: Crops like wheat, corn, and tea are traded in financial markets.
• National revenue: Many governments, especially in developing countries, rely on agriculture for income.
• Economic development: Agriculture has driven economic growth in various regions.
• Agro-based industries: Numerous industries rely on agricultural products like cotton, sisal, and jute.
• Transport sector: Heavily depends on agriculture for cargo and supplies.
• Supply of raw material: Agriculture provides inputs for industries like sugar, jute, cotton textiles, and Vanaspati.

3. Environmental

• Greener environment: Agriculture can create natural vegetation and enhance surroundings.
• Conserving the environment: Good practices help reduce pollution and protect the environment.
• Conducive environment: Transforms arid and semi-arid areas into green, livable spaces.
• Water conservation: Modern agriculture which relies on drip irrigation helps to conserve water. Dams also stop water from wasting away.
• Minimizing pollution: Plants help purify the air by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. They also trap harmful toxins and pathogens in the air.
• Improving soil structure: The roots of plants hold together the soil particles and stop soil erosion.
• Absorb heat: The vegetative cover helps cool the earth’s surface and reduces evaporation of water from the surface.

4. Global

• Forging international cooperation: Many countries interact with each other because of exporting and importing agricultural produce.

• Improving standards of living: Good agricultural techniques help farmers and other players improve their living standards.

• International trade: International trade is dependent on agricultural products which are interchanged between countries.

• Foreign exchange: Agricultural countries earn foreign currency by exporting agricultural produce.

• Food aid: Agriculture surplus country can help agri-deficit country by providing a food aid, which helps in creating a domination of soft power.

5. Scientific

• Support scientific research: Researchers and scientists normally rely on plants and animals that have been produced through agriculture.
• Improved health: Most of the drugs and medication come from produce that is farmed.

Factors affecting agriculture in a region

1. Relief:

• Topography: Topography affects agriculture as it relates to soil erosion, difficulty of tillage, and poor transportation facilities. Mechanization of agriculture depends entirely on the topography of land.

• Terrain: Different terrains play a different role in the type of farming and type of crops.

• For example: Rice is the main crop on the irrigated hill terraces, Wheat grows well in plain regions with moderate temperature and rainfall. Rice and sugarcane dominate well-irrigated regions with a fairly warm climate.

• Slope: The aspects of slope also determine the agricultural activity in a region. Aspect of slope means whether the slope is sun-facing or not and how steep the slope is. The steeper the slope is, the less conducive it is for agriculture. On steep slopes, terrace farming is practiced.
  • For example: Crops like tea and coffee can be grown only on well-drained slopes that receive a good amount of rainfall.

• Altitude: The soils of high mountainous tracts are generally immature. The soils at such altitudes are not well developed due to the slope, which induces erosion of the soil, making it thin and non-conducive for agriculture.

2. Temperature:

Most crops require lower temperatures at the time of sowing and higher temperatures at the time of ripening.

• Kharif crops require higher temperature and are sown in the summer season. Most of the growth period falls during the rainy season.

• Rabi crops require lower temperature and moisture and are sown in the winter season.

• Sugarcane gives good yield in South India than in northern plains, which need warm climates.

3. Rainfall:

Areas of heavy rainfall (more than 150 cm) such as East India and the west coastal plains grow rice, tea, coffee, sugarcane, jute, etc., and have a high animal population due to the availability of fodder and grazing area. Mixed cropping is very common in which pulses are mixed with cereals in semi-arid stretches of India.

4. Soil:

Soils differ in respect of physical and chemical composition. Soils may be fine or coarse, porous or non-porous. In general, fine soils like loam or silt are very fertile. The chemical composition of the soil determines its productivity.

• Rice is mainly grown in clayey soils, while loamy soils are best for wheat.
• The regur soil of the Deccan Plateau is ideal for the cultivation of cotton.
• Coarse grains such as jowar, bajra, maize, ragi, barley, etc., are grown in inferior soils (light sandy soils, light black soils, red and laterite soils).
• Delta soils of West Bengal are renewed by floods every year and are very fertile, making them ideal for jute cultivation. Farmers grow 2-3 crops a year.
• Soils of the Darjeeling hills contain sufficient quantities of humus, iron, potash, and phosphorus, which are necessary for the tea bush to grow.

5. Irrigation:

Rice is a dominant crop in regions with reliable irrigation and a warm climate (coastal plains and irrigated belts of South India).

• Example: North Indian plain regions are well irrigated and support 2-3 crops of rice a year.

6. Size of Land Holdings:

• Small holding: In case of small holdings, the priority of farmers would be to grow food grains for their family members (subsistence farming).
• Large holding: Farmers with large holdings can opt for cash crops and help in crop diversification, leading to changes in the cropping pattern (commercial farming). However, despite the potential for crop diversification, large holdings are used mostly for monoculture of rice, wheat, etc.

Challenges associated with Indian agriculture:

• Neglect of crop rotation: Most farmers in India are illiterate and do not understand the need for crop rotation. Consequently, they use the same type of crop, leading to a significant decrease in soil fertility.
• Inadequate use of manures and fertilizers: Inadequate use of manures like cow-dung or vegetable refuse and chemical fertilizers makes Indian agriculture much less productive compared to Japanese or Chinese agriculture.
• Inadequate water supply: The total water potential in the country is more than adequate to irrigate the whole cultivated area. However, the current problem lies in discovering cheap and efficient methods to utilize these vast water supplies.
• Small and fragmented land holdings: Due to the subdivision and fragmentation of holdings, much time and labor are wasted moving seeds, manure, implements, and cattle from one piece of land to another. Agricultural land is also wasted in providing boundaries.
• Low quality seeds: Good quality seeds are out of reach of the majority of farmers, especially small and marginal farmers mainly because of exorbitant prices of better seeds.
• Indiscriminate use of biocides: It has resulted in widespread environmental pollution which takes its own toll. Chemical fertilizers are costly and are often beyond the reach of poor farmers.
• Faulty Irrigation: Large tracts in Punjab and Haryana have been rendered useless (areas affected by salinity, alkalinity, and water-logging) due to faulty irrigation.
  • Example: In the Indira Gandhi Canal command area, intensive irrigation has led to a sharp rise in sub-soil water level, leading to water-logging, soil salinity, and alkalinity.

• Soil erosion: Large tracts of fertile land suffer from soil erosion by wind and water. This area must be properly treated and restored to its original fertility.
• Inadequate storage facilities: Storage facilities in rural areas are either totally absent or grossly inadequate, compelling farmers to sell their produce at prevailing market prices which are bound to be low.
• No Access to modern technology: Bringing new technologies and practices to a large number of smallholders scattered over vast countryside and integrating them with modern input and output markets is a huge challenge for Indian agriculture.
• Subsidy and MSP related issues: There is a long-standing issue of subsidy and MSP-related matters, which affect the choice of crop to be farmed in an area.
• Instability in Agricultural Prices: Fluctuations in agricultural product prices pose a big threat to Indian agriculture. Stabilization of prices is important not only for growers but also for consumers, exporters, and agro-based industries.
• Monsoon dependent: As a result, food-grain production fluctuates year after year. A year of abundant cereal output is often followed by a year of acute shortage.
• Poor penetration of forward and backward linkages: India has poor rural roads affecting the timely supply of inputs and transfer of outputs from farms.
  • Additional challenges: Regional floods, poor seed quality, inefficient farming practices, lack of cold storage, and harvest spoilage cause over 30% of farmers’ produce to go to waste. The lack of organized retail and competing buyers limits Indian farmers’ ability to sell surplus and commercial crops.

Salient Features of Indian Agriculture

• Subsistence agriculture: Most parts of India practice subsistence agriculture. The farmer owns a small piece of land, grows crops with the help of family members, and consumes almost all the produce with little surplus to sell in the market.
• Pressure of population on agriculture: The rapidly increasing population in India puts pressure on agriculture to provide employment to a large section of the workforce and to feed the growing millions.
• Importance of animals: Complete mechanization of Indian agriculture is still a distant goal, so animals continue to dominate agricultural operations like ploughing, irrigation, threshing, and transporting products.
• Dependent upon Monsoon: Despite significant expansion of irrigation facilities since Independence, only one-third of the cropped area is provided with perennial irrigation, while the remaining two-thirds rely on the uncertainties of monsoon rainfall.
• Crops variety: India is a vast country with varied types of relief, climate, and soil conditions. Both tropical and temperate crops are successfully grown in India.
• Predominance of food crops: Since Indian agriculture has to feed a large population, the production of food crops is the first priority of farmers almost everywhere in the country. More than two-thirds of the total cropped area is devoted to the cultivation of food crops.
• Insignificant place given to fodder crops: Only 4% of the reporting area is devoted to permanent pastures and grazing lands due to the demand for land for food crops, resulting in very low productivity of domestic animals compared to international standards.
• Labour intensive cultivation: Due to an increase in population, the pressure on land holdings has increased. Land holdings get fragmented and subdivided, becoming uneconomical. Machinery and equipment cannot be used on such farms.
• Traditional methods of production: In India, the methods of agricultural production, along with equipment, are traditional. This is mainly due to poverty and illiteracy among the people. Traditional technology is a significant cause of low production.
• Under employment: Due to inadequate irrigation facilities and uncertain rainfall, agricultural productivity is low, and farmers may only find work for a few months in a year. Their work capacity cannot be properly utilized, resulting in underemployment and disguised unemployment.
• Seasonal pattern: India has three major crop seasons.

• Kharif season starts with the onset of monsoons and continues until the beginning of winter. Major crops of this season include rice, maize, jowar, bajra, cotton, sesame, groundnut, and pulses like moong and urad.
• Rabi season begins at the start of winter and continues until the end of winter or early summer. Major crops include wheat, barley, jowar, gram, and oilseeds such as linseed, rape, and mustard.
• Zaid season is the summer cropping season, where crops like rice, maize, groundnut, vegetables, and fruits are grown. Recently, new varieties of pulses have been developed that can be successfully cultivated in summer.

CROPPING INTENSITY

There are only two ways to satisfy the increasing food and other demands of the country’s rising population—either by expanding the net area under cultivation or intensifying cropping over the existing area. The net sown area in the country has risen by about 20% since independence, reaching a point where any appreciable increase is not possible. Thus, raising the cropping intensity becomes the only viable option.

Cropping intensity refers to growing multiple crops from the same field during one agricultural year. It can be expressed using the formula:

Cropping Intensity = (Gross Cropped Area / Net Sown Area) × 100

Measures to raise cropping intensity:

• Irrigation: Irrigation has played an essential role in raising cropping intensity in northern states, where it has increased significantly. Irrigation helps raise cropping intensity by enabling the cultivation of crops during the dry season as well.
• Fertilisers: The need to leave the land fallow for some period to regain the lost nutrients can be reduced by using fertilizers and following other suitable cropping practices.
• Crop Rotation: It is the suitable arrangement of successive crops so that different crops draw nutrients in different proportions or from different soil strata.
  • Example: When legumes (pulses, gram, etc.) or certain oilseeds are sown just before cereals, they fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, which can then be absorbed by the cereals.
• Mixed Cropping: Wheat and barley or wheat and gram, or barley and gram, are grown together to maintain a balance of consumption between different nutrients.
• Relay cropping: Simultaneous sowing of different crops with different nurturing periods in the same field and harvesting them one after the other.
  • Example: Highly fertilizer-intensive crops like sugarcane and tobacco can be followed by cereals to utilize the residual nutrients.
• Selective mechanisation: The use of tractors, tillers, threshers, etc., can save critical time between raising two crops, enabling the sowing of more than one crop.
• Use of fast-maturing varieties: These varieties can enable the growth of more than one crop within one growing season.
• Appropriate plant protection: Measures include the use of pesticides, insecticides, seed treatment, weed control, rodent control measures, etc. These measures are most effective when all farmers in an area adopt them collectively.
• Proper education: Positive efforts have been made by the government to educate illiterate, poor farmers about new methods of technical farming.

Spatial Variation in Cropping Intensity in India

• Very high Cropping Intensity: This region includes the states of Punjab, Haryana, and West Bengal. The plains of Punjab and Haryana are sub-humid alluvial regions with good alluvial soil and moderate to high land capability.
• Reason: Adequate hydrology, the Green Revolution, and the use of modern inputs and technology have diversified the cropping pattern.
•  High Cropping Intensity: This region includes areas of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
• Reason: Humid climatic conditions with fertile soil and year-round supportive hydrology facilitate continuous agriculture, with partial use of modern technology and mechanization.
• Moderate Cropping Intensity: This region includes areas of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, which have sub-humid to semi-arid climatic conditions.
• Reason: Moderate soil capability, lower carrying capacity of the land, and comparatively lower productivity.
• Low Cropping Intensity: This region includes areas of Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, North Eastern States, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, and Jharkhand.
• Reason: Physiographic or climatic constraints and highly diversified cropping patterns result in low productivity. Per-hectare yields in these regions are moderate to poor.

CROP PRODUCTIVITY

Crop productivity is the quantitative measure of crop yield in a given measured area of a field. The use of new crop varieties and the efficient application of agrochemicals have immensely contributed to increased plant productivity. Here are a few measures to improve crop productivity:

• Mechanization: Mechanization involves the use of various power resources and improved farm tools to enhance cropping intensity, precision, and efficiency in the utilization of crop inputs while reducing losses at different stages of production.

• Increased plant density: High-density planting is one of the most effective measures to increase productivity per unit area.
• Efficient methods of cropping systems.
• Easily manageable, high yield potential with higher return per unit area.
• More efficient harvesting of radiant energy.
• Animal feed made more digestible through processing.
• Keeping animals indoors during cold weather.
• Assured irrigation: Assured irrigation makes agriculture less dependent on the monsoon, meeting untimely water needs and increasing productivity.
• High-quality seeds: High-yielding variety (HYV) seeds are of better quality compared to normal seeds. These seeds are an excellent option to ensure a healthy and surplus crop with good immunity against insects and diseases.
• Good agricultural practices: Techniques such as drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation help farmers achieve higher yields while conserving water, fertilizers, energy, and crop protection products.
• Soil health checking: Assessing soil health provides a true understanding of soil conditions.
• Choosing the good cropping pattern: Non-legume crops (which deplete nutrients) should be followed by legume crops (which replenish nutrients), maintaining the balance of crops.

Kendall’s regional classification based on agricultural productivity and efficiency

Kendall’s classification divides regions into five categories based on agricultural productivity:

• Very High Productivity Region: Punjab, Haryana, and deltaic parts of the Eastern Coastal plains.
• Reason: Fertile land, assured irrigation, and the use of modern agricultural technology.
• High Productivity Regions: Ganga plain, Assam plain, and Peninsular river valleys.
• Reason: Fertile land and high cropping intensity.
• Medium Productivity Region: Malwa plateau, Gujarat plateau, and Tamil Nadu plateau.
• Reason: Partial irrigation availability.
• Low Productivity Regions: Bundelkhand, Bakhelkhand, Chotanapur plateau, and North Eastern Hills.
• Reason: Lack of assured irrigation facilities and prevalence of shifting cultivation.
• Very Low Productivity Regions: Rainshadow zone of the Western Ghats and Rajasthan.
• Reason: Infertile land, low rainfall, and lack of irrigation facilities.