State of Indian Agriculture post Independence PDF

Preview

Summary

Download State of Indian Agriculture post Independence PDF

Description

INDIAN ECONOMICS II Topic: STATE OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE POST INDEPENDENCE TILL TODAY Name: Kajal Bharti Course: BA Hons Political Science Roll No. 181746

INTRODUCTION Agriculture plays an important role in the process of economic development of less developed countries like India. Before Independence agriculture was the main source of national income and occupation at the time of Independence. But even today agriculture plays a significant role in national income contribution and employment (more than 60%)

PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURE POST INDEPENDENCE Although share of agriculture to GDP has declined although in terms of growth throughout the years, the performance of agriculture in the post Independence era has been impressive. The trend was as follow: Year 1950-1 1960-1 1980-1 2004-5 2008-9

Share in GDP of Agriculture (%) 50.2 47.3 35.8 15.9 13.3

Period

Growth Rate(percent per annum)

1950-1 to 1964-5 1967-8 to 1980-1 1980-1 to 1990-1 1992-3 to 1996-7 1992-3 to 2001-2 1997-8 to 2004-5 2004-5 to 2010-11

2.51 2.20 3.07 3.85 2.76 1.60 3.47

Share in employment (%) 75.9 56.4 -

Source: National Accounts Statistics of India

Significant fluctuations in the agricultural growth are observed.

AGRICULTURAL POLICIES: An OverviewMany institutional and infrastructural changes have been introduced since Independence. Broadly, agricultural policy followed during this period can be distinguished in four phases: PHASE I (1947-mid 1960) The first phase of agricultural policy witnessed tremendous agrarian reforms, institutional changes, development of major irrigation project and strengthens of cooperative credit institution. Most important was abolition of intermediaries and giving land titles to the actual cultivators. . Land reforms were important in

increasing agricultural production during this phase. In order to encourage the farmers to adopt better technology, incentive price policy was adopted in 1964 and the Agricultural Price Commission was set up to advice the Government on the fixation of support prices of agricultural crops. Despite the institutional changes and development programmes introduced by the Government during this phase, India remained dependent upon foreign countries for food to feed the rising population. PHASE II( mid 1960s-1980s) The new agricultural strategy relies on high-yielding varieties of crops, multiple cropping, the package approach, modern farm practices and spread of irrigation facilities. The biggest achievement of this strategy has been attainment of self sufficiency in foodgrains. Agrarian reforms during this period took back seat while research, extension, input supply, credit, marketing, price support and spread of technology were the prime concern of policy makers. Agricultural Price Commission was also established. PHASE III (1980s-1990s) The next phase in Indian agriculture began in early 1980s. This period started witnessing process of diversification which resulted into fast growth in non-foodgrains output like milk, fishery, poultry, vegetables, fruits etc which accelerated growth in agricultural GDP during the 1980s. There has been a considerable increase in subsidies and support to agriculture sector during this period while public sector spending in agriculture for infrastructure development started showing decline in real term but investment by farmers kept on moving on a rising trend. PHASE !V(1990 onwards) Economic reforms of 1991 involved deregulation, reduced government participation in economic activities, and liberalization. Agriculture was affected indirectly by devaluation of exchange rate, liberalization of external trade and disprotection to industry. During this period, opening up of domestic market affected agriculture. A New Agricultural Policy was launched by Indian Government in July 2000 aka Green Revolution strategy which aimed to achieve output growth rate of 4% per annum. The Eleventh Five Year Plan focuses on faster and inclusive growth and Twelfth Five Year Plan focuses on small and marginal farmers and resource poor regions.

AGRICULTURE IN PRESENT DAY As per 2018, agriculture employed more than 50% of the Indian work force and contributed 17-18% to country’s GDP. According to Economic Survey 19-20 ,the annual agriculture growth rate has been static i.e., 2.88% from past six years. In the According to Union Budget 2020, special focus has been on agriculture sector. A 16 point formula has been introduced to revive and enhance the agriculture industry.

CONCLUSION Agriculture is the major source of livelihood. Even after years of independence, it is the demographically the broadest economic sector and despite the recent accomplishments, agriculture has the potential for major productivity and total output gain. ....