Agriculture,
the backbone of Indian rural economy, contributes to the overall economic
growth of the country and determines the standard of life for more than 50% of
the Indian population. Agriculture contributes only about 14% to the overall
GDP but its impact is felt in the manufacturing sector as well as the services
sector as the rural population has become a significant consumer of goods and
services in the last couple of decades. But during the same time, growing
industrial sector has created its own set of problems to agriculture.
(Note:
Some problems are inter – related and have common solutions. Hence I have
listed the solutions separately)
The ‘Intra – Sector’ Problems
1. Fragmented
land holding
Nearly 80% of the 140 million farming
families hold less than 2 acres of land[1].
Large land holdings enable the farmer to implement modern agricultural
techniques and boost productivity. Besides, the number of people dependent on
agriculture is also less in a large farmland as is the case in the Western economies.
Small land holdings restrict the farmer to use traditional methods of farming
and limit productivity. As land holdings are small, more people invariably work
on the farms in the rural areas and coupled with the obsolete technology, farm
incomes come down.
