Question

In India, the existing yield levels of a majority of crops remain much lower than the world average. In this context, how modernizing agriculture can increase productivity and thereby help in achieving the goal of doubling farmer’s income by 2022.

Answer 1

Approach:

• In introduction write about existing yield levels and agricultural productivity
• Write Reasons for low productivity
• Write how agriculture modernisation can be achieved.
• Provide an optimistic conclusion about agriculture future based on arguments provided.

Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural outputs to agricultural inputs. Major indicator of productivity is output per hectare which remains much lower than the world average.

Crop production in the country is dominated by cultivation of paddy in Kharif and wheat in Rabi seasons. If we compare yields of rice, wheat and horticultural crops with other countries-

(i) India exhibits low yields in rice when compared to other countries but not in wheat. Rice yield in India is just 55% of rice yield in China. The average yield of rice in India is much lower than other major rice-producing countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam.

(ii) It may seem surprising but India edges out the United States in yield per hectare in wheat. China is the major producer of wheat that has far higher productivity than India. France, Germany and the United Kingdom exhibit super-high productivity in wheat but their contributions to the world output are significantly smaller than those of India and China.

(iii) India is fairly placed in terms of contribution to global production of potato and banana but there also the level of productivity is less as compared to many countries. In the potato productivity in India is less than half of the productivity of the USA, Germany and the Netherlands while the yield of banana in Indonesia is 1.5 times higher than that of India.

(iv) The same goes for other crops including oilseeds, fruits and vegetables as well as activities such as animal husbandry, fisheries and poultry.

The second broad productivity concern relates to regional variation. It is also evident that while Punjab and Haryana exhibit high productivity nationally, states such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Karnataka suffer from quite low yields per hectare. The scope for improved productivity in these latter regions is substantial.

Reasons for low productivity:

Include low and faulty input uses

• The predominant causes are low irrigation: Close to 53% of the cropped area is water-stressed. Rainwater management practices and services are resource-starved. This limits a farmer’s capacity to undertake multiple cropping and leads to inefficient utilization of land resources.
• The dominance of inefficient production practices, such as flood irrigation, at the farm level.
• Use of low-quality seeds
• Low and inefficient fertilizer usage and also quality concerns of fertilizers, higher dependence on imports.
• Electricity supply issues
• On average, farmers do not realize remunerative prices due to the limited reach of the minimum support prices (MSP) and an agricultural marketing system that delivers only a small fraction of the final price to the actual farmers. Both production and marketing suffer due to the absence of adequate capital.
• Structural issues: The farm size of the majority of the household has declined to unviable levels. Small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86.2% of all farmers in India. Given the predominance of small and marginal farmers in Indian agriculture, affordability becomes a significant constraint on technology adoption by farmers.
• Relief measures in the event of natural disasters are inadequate and suffer from procedural inefficiencies and delays. Also, low crop insurance penetration is the reason for concern.
• Poor access to modern technology and no real technological breakthrough in recent times. Low adoption of improved technology, and knowledge deficit about improved agricultural practices.
• Inefficient extension delivery systems have led to the presence of large yield gaps.
• A huge gap exists between the demand for and supply of skills in agriculture, hindering diversification, adoption of precision agriculture and on-farm post-harvest value addition.
• Agricultural research in the country is constrained by resource inadequacy, regulations and intellectual property rights (IPR).

Modernising Agriculture:

Productivity and efficiency

• Increase area under irrigation: Irrigation coverage, focus should be on increasing coverage through micro-irrigation. Investment subsidies for micro-irrigation: Rather than power and water subsidies, investment subsidies for micro-irrigation can be provided through the DBT model. “Per drop more crop” initiative under which drip/sprinkler irrigation is being encouraged for optimal utilization of water.
• Increase the adoption of hybrid and improved seeds: Dynamic seed development plans are required. These may be based on the crop-wise area (each season separately), seed rate per hectare used, desired/targeted seed replacement rate and crop-wise seed requirement. Crop wise requirement should be worked out based on historical trends, the introduction of new varieties and replacement of poor yielding varieties.
  • States should aim to increase the seed replacement rate (SRR) to 33 per cent for self-pollinated crops and 50 per cent for cross-pollinated crops in alternating years.
  • Strengthen seed testing facilities
  • Uniform national procedure for seed licensing
• Efficient fertilizer usage: Strengthen the Soil Health Card scheme
  • Reorient fertilizer subsidy policy: The current lopsided fertilizer subsidy policy needs to bring secondary and micronutrients on the same nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) platform as phosphorus (P) and potash (K).
• Regulate pesticide use

Strengthening extension systems:

• The synergy between Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs): The ATMA programme needs to be reoriented to include bottom-up planning at the district and block levels to develop Strategic Research Extension Plans (SREP). Subject matter specialists at KVKs should orient their research to the block action plans developed by ATMA.
  • Public Private Partnership in KVKs: The guiding principles of ATMA provide for the promotion of PPP in extension delivery. With each KVK in possession of approximately 50 acres of land, KVKs should incubate private sector initiatives in extension delivery.
• Market-led extension: Give priority to extension services that disseminate information to farmers regarding (i) crop selection (ii) demand for and supply of crop production, (iii) expected price of the commodity and (iv) availability of infrastructure facilities for storage, transport and marketing of produce. Value-added extension: Prioritise value-added extension services to enable a reduction in postharvest losses by converting raw agricultural produce to processed products. This allows for increased price realization and contributes towards increasing farmers’ income.

Diversification: promotion of high-value crops (HVCs) and livestock

• Establish regional production belts Use of hybrid technology in vegetables: Shift to using hybrid varieties for vegetables. At present, 10% of the cropped area under vegetables is under hybrids. Shifting to hybrids has the potential to increase yields by 1.5 to 3 times and provide a significant increase in income.
• Rootstocks for production of fruits: Rootstock technology has shown the capacity to double production and be resilient to climate stress. Measures should be taken to standardize and promote the usage of rootstocks to produce fruits.
• Smart horticulture: There have been pockets of success spread throughout the country, using techniques such as high-density plantation, protected cultivation and organic production
• Strengthen the market for organic products, spices, exotic crops.
• Breed indigenous cattle with exotic breeds
• Promote and develop bull mother farms: Employing multiple ovulation and embryo transfer technologies, these farms can significantly enhance milk productivity through the supply of cattle with enhanced milk potential to farmers. Village level procurement systems: Installing of bulk milk chillers and facilities for high-value conversion of milk are needed to promote dairy in states.
• The convergence of schemes in the fisheries sector: Integrate the Blue Revolution scheme with MGNREGA

Marketing and Postharvest mechanism

• Launch of eNAM initiative to provide farmers with an electronic online trading platform.
• Cold storage and warehousing on scientific line
• Improved supply chains and logistics in agriculture to avoid wastages
• A buoyant agricultural ecosystem where any surplus which cannot be absorbed by the domestic market must be of such quality and variety that it may be channelled through exports. Agricultural trade may indeed play a key role in this direction.

While measures that have been outlined are essential to increase productivity, for rejuvenation of agriculture as well as achieving the goal of doubling farmers income by 2022.