BOOSTING AGRICULTURAL

PRODUCTIVITY

Co-ordinated by

MuthuLakshmi.V

Team Members

Muthu Lakshmi.v, Jyothi.c,Bhagyalakshmi, Asha B.R

PREFACE:

1. Introduction

2. Problems in agriculture

3. Proposed solutions

4. Implementation of the solution

5. Impact of the solution

6. Challenges to the solution

7. Appendix

INTRODUCTION

Agriculture is called the back bone of India as it has got a prime role in Indian economy.

India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables and the third largest producer of

food grains.

Since the population of today is increasing the farmer is not able to meet the requirement of

the people completely. He is now using some chemicals in order to increase the production.

These chemicals that keep the weeds and pest away cause pollution to the soil, water and this

may also spoil the crops by getting into it.

It is advised to the farmers to follow organic farming that does not involve use chemical

substances and cause harm to any of the resources.

Indian agriculture needs to grow to remain competitive in the world’s economy and to become

an exporter of food to the world.

REASON FOR SELECTING:

To improve the poverty line of economy, agriculture and productivity to increase the income

and this has to be done through the use of technology which is beneficial for the Indian

farmers.

By investing, research and development, industry and government can boost agriculture

productivity growth which can lead to increased food exports more effectively and sustainable

natural resource.

In order to increase the productivity the green revolution plan was started during the middle of

1960

PROBLEMS IN AGRICULTURE

1. Population Pressure:

India has a huge population and still is increasing at a very fast rate. This is

creating a great demand for land and every bit of land has been brought under the plough.

Even the hill slopes have been cut into terraces for cultivation.

2. Small and fragmented land holding:

The pressure of increasing population and practice of dividing land equally

among the heirs has caused excessive sub divisions of farm holdings. Consequently the holdings

are small and fragmented. The small size of holding makes farming activity uneconomical and

lead to social tension, violence and discontentment.

3. Inadequate Irrigation facilities:

Many of the farmers do not use irrigation method or do not have irrigational

facilities and leads to lack of appropriate amount of water needed by plants. They wait for the

monsoon rain that is not very sure.

4. Depleted Soil:

Indian soils have been used for growing crops for thousands of years which have

resulted in the depletion of soil fertility with deforestation and the source of maintaining

natural fertility of the soil has been dried out. Lack of material resources and ignorance of

scientific knowledge have further depleted the soils natural fertility.

5. Storage Of Food Grains:

Storage of food grains is a very big problem. Nearly 10% of our harvest goes waste every year in

the absence of proper storage facilities. This colossal wastage can be avoided by developing

scientific ware housing facilities.The government has taken several steps to provide storage

facilities.

6. Farm Implements:

Although some mechanization of farming has taken place in some parts of the

country, most of the farmers are poor and do not have enough resource to purchase modern

farm implements and tools. This hampers the development of agriculture.

7. Climatic Change:

Climatic changes cause an adverse effect on agriculture. Years ago the soil, water

and air were not contaminated but now it is totally impure. So the climate, water and soil

condition has to be maintained in order to maintain the soil fertility.

8. Deforestation

The cutting of trees or deforestation cause harm to the soil fertility. The major effect

of deforestation is soil erosion and decrease in the ground water level.

Other problems faced by the farmers on agriculture are:

Rising cost in the labor and materials, but output prices are not rising in tandem.

Promotion of expensive GM seeds has made the financial status of poor Indian farmers

worse. GM cotton in India has failed because it showed no increased resistance to pests.

Over-Withdrawing of water from underground have caused underground water

depletion

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

Here are some solutions for the problems given above.

1. Irrigational facilities:

Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the land or soil.Irrigation

includes protecting plants against the frost, suppressing weed growth and helping in preventing

soil consolidation.

Irrigational methods are of many types Drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation and

flood irrigation.

These types of irrigational facilities consume less amount of water and supply

adequate amount of water to the plants. Therefore the farmers need not depend on monsoon

rains or about the drying of plants.

2. Mechanical Agriculture:

It is the process of using agricultural machinery to mechanize the work of

agriculture greatly increasing farm worker productivity.

This increases production efficiency, mechanization encourages large scale

production and improve the quantity of farm produced.

So if mechanical agriculture is followed by our farmers they can decrease their

working time and increase the supply.

Mechanical agriculture includes using of tractors, trucks, combine harvesters, air

planes (crop dusters) and other vehicles.

3. Fertilizers:

It is an organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to

a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plant. Almost half of

the people on this earth can be fed by the use of synthetic nitrogen.

Fertilizes provide Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, calcium, magnesium and

sulfur which are needed in large quantities and boron, chlorine, copper ions, manganese,

molybdenum, zinc and nickel. The other 3 macro molecules required by plants are Carbon,

Hydrogen and Oxygen.

The use of organic fertilizers made from plants will improve the production.

Examples of some organic fertilizers are seaweeds, hoof and horn, dried blood, bone meal,

etc.

4. Herbicides

They are also called weed killers. Kill unwanted plants and keeps the desired crop

relatively unharmed. The growth of weeds near a healthy plant can hamper the growth of

the healthy plant.

Examples of some herbicides are Buctril Herbicides and Trimec 899 Broadleaf

Herbicides

5. Pesticides:

These are substances meant for preventing, destroying or mitigating any pest. This

protects the plants from damaging, affected by diseases or insects. The pesticides are of

2 types that is chemicals and biological agents like bacteria, virus, antimicrobial or

disinfectant which kills or discourages pest.

Biopesticides are those that is derived from animals, plants or micro organism that

does not cause any harm to biological system.Examples of some biopesticides are

Canola oil and baking soda.

6. Soil Fertility Management:

The methods that help in soil conservation are

Stubble planting

Mulching

Contour ploughing

Strip planting

Mixed or inter cropping

Crop rotation

Terrace farming

The main key for development of agriculture is to maintain the soil fertility.the

above points are the ideas to increase the fertility of soil that will increase the production of

plants.

The fertility can be increased by adding compost that can also be used as

natural fertilizers.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SOLUTION

This proposed solution in the above slide help the farmers increase the productivity of the

crop without spoiling any of the resources such as water, soil, air and other organism that

consumes it.

The fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides used by farmers should be perfectly organic in nature.

Organic stuffs does not cause any harm to the atmosphere, but may take some time to react

when compared to chemicals put to protect the plant. The chemicals may protect the plant but

cause an extreme damage to the soil fertility and the animals which consume it.

The farmers who are not aware of the modernization are taken classes by some experienced

agriculturalist who will teach the application and using of these forms of agriculture, their uses

and advantage.

Financial support for agriculture:

Keeping in view the interest of the farmers as also the need of self reliance,Government has

been announcing Minimum Support Price for 24 crops.

The main objective of announting this price are:

To prevent fall in prices in the situation of over production.

To protect the interest of farmers by ensuring them a minimum price for their crops in

the suitation of price fall in the market.

The minimum support price of various crops are announced on the basis of recommendation

made by Agriculture Cost and Price Commision which takes into consideration the inputs costs

and favorable return to the farmers while recommending minimum support price.

AgriFin works with 11 financial institutions from Africa and Asia. These projects are designed to

help recipients improve their capacity to offer financial services to the agricultural sector.

Project funds are primarily used to build capacity, provide staff training, and invest in delivery

channels to increase outreach in rural areas. They cannot be used as capital for on-lending,

equity, or partial guarantees.

Foodgrains procurement by the government serves the dual purpose of providing support

prices to farmers and of building up public stocks of food grains.Procurement operations are

carried out by the food corporation of india and the state agencies designated by state

government procedure prices are based on support price recommended by commission for

agricultural costs and prices.

IMPACT OF THE SOLUTION

Significant challenges will have to be overcome to achieve the level of agricultural productivity

necessary to meet the predicted world demand for food, fiber, and fuel in 2050. Although

agriculture has less skilled labor, and a limited amount of arable land, among others met

significant challenges in the past, targeted increases in productivity by 2050 will have to be

made in the face of stringent constraints—including limited resources.

Mechanization is one factor that has had a significant effect on TFP since the beginning of

modern agriculture. Mechanized harvesting, for example, was a key factor in increasing cotton

production in the last century. In the future, mechanization will also have to contribute to

better management of inputs, which will be critical to increasing TFP in global production

systems that vary widely among crop types and regional economic status.

Agricultural mechanization, one of the great achievements of the 20th century (NAE, 2000),

was enabled by technologies that created value in agricultural production practices through the

more efficient use of labor, the timeliness of operations, and more efficient input management

with a focus on sustainable, high-productivity systems. Historically, affordable machinery,

which increased capability and standardization and measurably improved productivity, was a

key enabler of agricultural mechanization. Many examples shows some major developments

since the mid-1800s by John Deere, a major innovator and developer of machinery technology.

Sustainability of the solution:

Region, despite the fact that the total labor force involved in agricultural activities is

experiencing Agricultural mechanization is a key factor in the world’s ability to feed itself and

rapid mechanization in agriculture has allowed the sector to keep up with the demands of

population, particularly in the Asia-Pacific annual declines.

Thus far, however, current agricultural mechanization practices have increased pressure on

fragile natural resources, such as increasing soil erosion and promoting overuse of chemical

inputs, the latter seen in heavy utilization of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in crop production

typically resulting in significantly more nitrous oxide (N2O) [1] emissions from agricultural soils

than that occurring from less intensive, low-tillage techniques. Mechanization also plays a role

in encouraging farmers to open lands that currently serve as valuable forests and rangelands.

In addition, the agricultural sector as a whole consumes more than 70 per cent of the world’s

total fresh water resources.

In short, the margin of error in our actions to address rapid recourse depletion, yet feed more

people than any time in the history of our planet, is narrowing rapidly. Coupled with

increasingly erratic weather events, such as prolonged flooding and drought, the task ahead for

the agricultural sector is daunting.

In response, the United Nations Asian and Pacific Centre for Agricultural Engineering and

Machinery (UNAPCAEM) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations held

a Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization Strategies Roundtable 8 - 9 December at FAO’s

Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. The Roundtable addressed the

modalities in developing Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization Strategies (SAMS) that can

enable countries to achieve the dual goals of intensifying agricultural production and achieving

environmental sustainability. The latter is particularly important for the Asia-Pacific region,

which is already beginning to face serious environmental challenges to maintain its agricultural

production base. The Roundtable, which established a platform for increased substantive

collaboration and tangible action on SAMS between FAO and UNAPCAEM, was attended by

country representatives in the area of agricultural mechanization from Bangladesh, China,

India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam. Key

participation also included stakeholders from the private sector, donors, UN agencies and

experts on agricultural mechanization strategies.

CHALLENGES TO THE SOLUTION

Ergon undertakes a range of advice, research and analysis regarding labour practices in smallholder and

plantation agriculture.

For example, Ergon has been consultant to the multi-stakeholder Better Cotton Initiative since 2006,

focusing on social and economic aspects of sustainability in cotton cultivation – including labour

practices (plus a focus on gender); access to markets, information, technology and finance; and

producer and worker organization.

A review of tools, actors and approaches to promote decent work in agriculture; and a review of global

activities to promote access to finance in smallholder agriculture.

According to the WTO, India would have everything to gain from a full liberalization of the international

markets for agriculture, industry and services alike. The liberalization of international agricultural trade

would allow India to develop and meet the great challenges it faces:

>Boost its exportation of agricultural goods and thereby reduce the country’s trade balance

deficit. Its balance of trade is largely negative, particularly within the agricultural sector. While

imports grew by 64 percent from 1998 to 2001, exports fell by 7 percent over the same period.

This is mainly because the Indian

> Import, at lower cost, an increased variety of products that would help the country react to

Westernized modes of government neglected the export market for quite some time,

concentrating instead on supplying the national market. The country’s exports served at the

time as a way to sell off surplus food.consumption. Indians have started to modify their dietary

habits, and for the time being, imported products alone are able to satisfy their expectations

and new needs, given that national food production is insufficient both in quantity and in

diversity.

.

> Stimulate its economic growth by increasing its share in the international trade of agricultural

and agrifood products (currently at 1.2 percent) and benefitting as much as possible from the

growing potential of Indian demand, stimulated by population growth and improved purchasing

power.

The WTO also purports that free trade in services would be essential for economic growth and

development in India, for it holds certain competitive advantages, particularly in the profitable

economic sectors of new technologies and computing.

APPENDIX

All the informations collected from:

1.International Plant Nutrition Institute.

2. The Asian Green Revolution

3. Wikipedia

4. Arkbird publication

5. encyclopedia

6. G.K book-Tarun Goyal

7.Preserved article

8. expert series pu text book