Question

<!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--> “Development of agro-based industries will not only help in job creation and uplift MSME sector but has the propensity to stabilise and make agriculture lucrative.” Discuss.

Answer 1

Answer:
Introduction:
Agro-based industries are industries using agricultural products as raw materials. For example Silk textiles, cotton textiles, Jute industry, Sugar industry, paper industry, vegetable industry, etc. are agro-based industries. The thrust on doubling the farmer’s income has pushed the government to promote the Agro-based industries across the country through the implementation of various schemes and policies.

Body:

Importance of Agro-Based Industries:
Job Creation (Employment):
Small agro Industries based at the block level or in suburban areas absorb the surplus rural labour and address the problem of large-scale unemployment in rural areas.
These industries can play a big role in controlling distress migration to cities.
The agro and food processing industry is labour-intensive, hence turning it into a major export industry will create vast employment opportunities.
The importance of agro-industry for employment is further emphasized by high and increasing levels of female involvement, especially in the non-traditional, high-value agro-chains.
Increasing Farmers Income:
The contribution of cropping and animal husbandry in the total income of the farm households is only 35 per cent while wages and service contribute to more than 50 per cent in the average monthly income.
The Annual Industrial Survey, 2016-17 showed that the agro-industries contribute about 36 per cent of the industrial employment. Substantial employment is generated in production agriculture and supply chain.
These industries would help in reducing post-harvest losses and wastes. They would also help in using the by-products more efficiently. This can increase rural income by fetching better prices to producers and also ensure consumer welfare by increasing the availability of agricultural consumer goods.
Stabilizing the prices and reducing post-harvest losses:
The volatility of prices is one of the main reasons young people do not want to pursue agriculture as a profession. Prices of tomato, onion, potato, etc fluctuate in a cyclic manner. Farmers have neither access to right market information nor the option of selling to processors.
Developing decentralised food processing industries like making chips from potato can control the volatility of crops and make agriculture lucrative.
Agro-based food processing also helps in reducing post-harvest losses due to refrigerated storage facilities.

Helping the overall economy:
The Textile and Clothing Industry has the potential to grow expeditiously and contribute to the government’s aim of becoming a 5 trillion USD economy.
The role of exports in accelerating the GDP, and the relation of textile and clothing exports with GDP growth rate and per capita income level of selected economies like South Korea, Hong Kong, China and Vietnam confirms positive contribution made by exports in general and T&amp;C exports in particular.
Dairying provides a remunerative outlet for family labour. Other than income generation and livelihood security, dairying also ensures nutritional security for the family addressing issues like malnutrition.
India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of milk accounting for nearly 19 per cent of the world milk production.
These industries also provide profitable diversification in the rural areas which ensures an all-round industrial growth in the rural areas resulting in inclusive growth of the country.
Issues with Agro Industries:

Textile sector:
Fabric Sector: India suffers from weak global competitiveness in terms of quality, scale and price of fabric segment of India’s textile value chain.
Infrastructure and Logistics: The Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP) was launched in 2005 to neutralize the weakness of fragmentation in the various sub-sectors of the textiles value chain, and the non-availability of quality infrastructure. This continues to be an area of concern.
Cotton Sector: The Technology Mission of Cotton (TMC) by 2012 achieved a reduction in trash content in Indian cotton, but still cotton fibre production, productivity and quality need focused attention.
Environmental Concerns: The major challenges faced for the processing of textiles are the availability of water, effluent treatment and disposal of the treated water and solid effluents.
Issues with the Food Processing Industry:
The food processing industries cover a wide range of activities utilizing farm, animal and forestry-based products as raw materials. Due to these wide ranges of activities, there is a lot of diversity like problems and issues relating to different agro-food processing industries. It is, therefore, difficult to envisage an overall technology policy framework covering various agro-food processing industries.
Challenges faced by the Dairy Sector:
Low productivity of Indian bovines, imbalanced feeding to animals, limited access of milk producers to the organized sector and age-old infrastructure operating on absolute technology are main problems faced by the dairy industry.
In addition, there are problems like lack of an organized credit system, lack of manufacturing facilities for value-added products, Lack of efficient chilling infrastructure at the village level, Lack of penetration in smaller cities/towns in terms of milk marketing and Lack of efficient cold chain distribution network.
Problems Associated in Jute Industries:
At present, there are only 60 jute producing mills in India. Most of these mills are concentrated along the Hooghly River, especially to the north of Kolkata.
Most of these jute industries are outdated and are working with the old technology. They produce conventional products like jute sacking and hessian as packaging material and to some extent carpet backing.

Way Forward:
India needs to work with an approach of holistic development of the complete textile value chain, acknowledging its integration with a global value chain at each stage.
Primary processing of all foods and processing of perishable foods needs to be undertaken in, or adjacent to, the point of production.
Thrust areas for research and development need to be identified and met with.
More financial incentives and support need to be provided to promote the modernization of the agro-processing industry and for establishing such industries in production catchments.
Arrangements to supply market information to the farmer and agro-processors need to be put in place, and out of the box thinking of all the stakeholders should be encouraged.
There is a need to increase the applications of jute in the country.
India needs to work on its jute quality by adopting new technologies.
The Government must take efforts in the Research &amp; Development sector, to strengthen the jute industry by focussing on the implementation of newer technologies, diversified products and improved machinery through intensive modernization.

Conclusion:
Agro-based industries conform to the notion of competitive advantage both within and outside the country. They play the role of a safety valve to absorb surplus rural labour and can address the problem of large scale unemployment/disguised employment in rural areas.