Sustaninable Development of diverse agriculture in india

摘要

Agriculture in India contributes nearly 25 per cent of GDP and two-thirds of the population depend upon it. With a population of over 1 billion, India accounts for approximately one-sixth of the world's population but on just 2.4 per cent of the world's surface area. Agricultural growth in the past has been sufficient to move from severe food crisis to aggregate food surplus today. Most of the development in agriculture has taken place in irrigated regions, overlooking the rainfed marginal environments. The rainfed regions are diverse in terms of resource base, varying from resource rich regions harnessing substantial production to resource poor regions with restricted potential. These resource poor regions are plagued with widespread poverty, degraded natural resources and are mostly dominated by secondary crops, namely coarse grains, pulses, roots and tubers. Barring maize and potato, secondary crops are losing ground against the finer cereals, and cash and commercial crops. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide leverage to these crops by providing priority support in terms of technological advancement and much needed policy support vis-a-vis other crops. Moreover, some coarse grains and pulses are nutritionally superior and increasing the productivity of this group will provide more nutritional security.