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India has been historically called the land of farmers, and there is good reason to it. The sector itself employs around 60 percent of the total population and India’s farm outputs rank second in the world. Right from the remnants of the history there are facts to support that India’s demographics and socio-economic fabric have evolved around its agricultural activities. The middle ages can be considered the golden period for agriculture, which saw a lot of innovative development in the forms of a better irrigation system with sophisticated water distribution system through channels. Sugarcane and developing sugar from it was an Indian discovery, which was later propagated to other markets through Greek travellers. India is still called the Sugar bowl of the world. With such a glorious past, India’s agriculture certainly is not in its best shape today. There are a lot of challenges that it faces and a number of reforms that it needs in order to match up to its old reputation. Challenges & Growth Inhibitors for Indian Agriculture A massive percentage of Indian population is employed in the agriculture sector, but it only contributes around 17 percent to the total GDP, which is decreasing year after year. This shows that the growth in agriculture has stagnated relative to other sectors. Some of the challenges that are hitting Indian agriculture hard are: • As per the reports of World Bank, India does not have in place good extension services, infrastructure and means for better accessibility to market to and from farmers. The rural areas lack in basic facilities, due to which the farmers are not able to directly access the market and have to take the help of middlemen through whom the whole business of selling crop produce takes place. The government should try to work some way out and reduce the role of middlemen. •Indian agriculture gained a lot from the green revolution, which increased the productivity of land manifold. However, when compared to the production efficiency and technology in other countries, India still has a lot to catch-up. •Indian education system needs a major revamp. Due to the explosion of IT sector, the course and curriculum has also adapted it to prepare more and more candidates for the industry. In the process of doing that, the agriculture sector has been completely neglected, which is a serious threat for better future of Indian agriculture. Therefore there is a need to create more institutions, which teach agriculture as a science and help those who are interested to make a career in this sector. Improving Education for Agricultural growth In the view of globalization and augmenting Intellectual Property threats it is essential to arm ourselves with the right kind and amount of knowledge and technology. Establishing new centres of agricultural excellence is absolutely essential along with the up-gradation of the existing institutes. India has some very well known universities such as GB Pant Agricultural University, Punjab Agricultural University and others. These universities have been pivotal in enhancing the state of agriculture in India. They not only teach students the best agricultural practices, but also introduce them to the latest technologies, effectively creating more awareness and a knowledge blanket to protect this sector from getting stuck in a quicksand of stagnated growth. Author Bio Saurabh Tyagi is an expert author, with an experience of over 4 years in writing content. He loves to write on topics related to career, education, real estate and technology. A gadget freak and social media enthusiast, he also keenly follows the latest trends in digital marketing.
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