Agriculture and Industries of India

Agriculture

Agriculture is the act of land cultivation, animal husbandry and horticulture for the benefit of the mankind. Landforms, climatic conditions, soil fertility, and availability of water and human resources are the major determinants of agriculture. These factors influence the pattern of agriculture in India. The topography of India favours the crop cultivation. A greater part of India has a tropical monsoon climate. The seasonal rainfall contributes significantly for the cultivation of crops. However, the cropping pattern differs greatly depending on amount of rainfall received in a region. Agricultural activities require skilled labourers at the time of sowing, and harvesting. This human resources is abundant in India. Skilled and cheap labour is a major determinant for the cultivation of coffee, tea and jute. The availability of fertile soil is one of the major determinants of the pattern of agriculture. Rice, sugarcane and jute require fertile alluvial soils or the deltaic alluvial soil. These crops are best grown in the deltaic regions of perennial rivers. The black soil favours the cultivation of cotton. In India, the patterns of agriculture is classified on the basis of land, water, volume of production and market for agricultural produce. Subsistence agriculture is a method of agriculture in which farmers themselves consume crops cultivated. Rice, the staple food of the people of southern India and wheat, the staple food of the people of northern India, are the main crops cultivated in subsistence agriculture. Commercial agriculture is a type of farming in which crops are cultivated on a large scale with the sole intention to sell them in domestic or foreign market. Rubber, tobacco, cotton and sugarcane are some of the important crops cultivated under commercial agriculture. Plantation agriculture is a type of framing in which crops are cultivated on a large scale, about hundreds of acres on a hilly or mountain areas. The plantations are organized on the line of factories and companies. Rubber, tea and coffee are the important crops cultivated under plantation agriculture. Plantation agriculture system is widely practiced in hilly areas of north-eastern regions and regions of the Eastern Ghats. These methods of agriculture are practiced in several parts of India during three cropping seasons, the Kharif season, the Rabi season and the Zaid season.

Strategies to overcome the challenges facing Indian agriculture

(a) Steps taken by the government:

1. The government has introduced better inputs and new agricultural equipments to help the farmers. These measures have shown significant improvement in the quality of output.

2. The government has set up agricultural demonstration farms such as Suratgarh Farm in Rajasthan in order to demonstrate how technology helps to increase the

output.

3. The government has taken several measures through legislation to consolidate small holdings into large holdings. This would give the farmer the benefit of economies of scale.

4. The government has set up various research institutions to guide the farmers by providing new farm machineries such as rice seeders, vibration oscillators and power tillers. The use of these ancillaries have shown significant growth in output.

5. The government has set up co-operative societies and agricultural development banks to provide the financial assistance to the farmers.

6. The government has come out with many schemes to help the farmers to meet their challenges. Crop Insurance Scheme is one such scheme.

7. The government has set up Food Corporation of India providing the farmers an assured buyer for their agricultural products.

8. The Government has established Agricultural Universities to train the farming community on new methods of cultivation. This has greatly helped the farmers to gain new knowledge on cultivation.

(b) Other stratergies:

9. Crop rotation and multiple cropping methods may be adopted to conserve soil fertility. These methods save the farmers in their gamble with monsoon rains.

10. Biotechnology can be used to modify the process of agriculture in so as to get higher yield in the output.

11. Application of cost efficiency through the reduction of cost of production without sacrificing the yield helps the farmers to reduce overall cost of production.

Major crops cultivated in India.

India is predominantly an agriculture country. Agriculture contributes significantly to the National Income. At the same time Indian agriculture is completely dependent on the vagaries of monsoon. Indian farmers gamble their fate with monsoon every year. In spite of the vagaries of monsoon and lack of modernization, Indian farmers cultivate varieties of crops such as paddy, wheat, sugarcane, jute and cotton. Among these crops, paddy and wheat are the major crops of India. Rice is the staple food for people living in southern India and wheat is the staple food for the north Indians.

Industries

Manufacturing means the process of conversion of raw materials into a more useful and valuable articles with the help of artisans or machines. The basic principle of manufacturing is that the more a material changed its form the greater will be its value and utility. For instance, value and utility of mineral oil increases only if it is converted into petro! or diesel. The industries that are involved in the process of conversion of raw materials into finished products by means of machines are called manufacturing industries. Availability of raw material, electricity, labour and means of transport, nearness to the market, and Government policies are the important factors that influence the localisation of industries. Iron and steel industries are generally localised near the iron mines or coalmines. Sugar industries are localised near the sugarcane cultivation areas in order to prevent sugarcane from losing its weight before conversion into sugar. Oil refineries use enormous quantity of crude oil generally imported from Middle East countries. Import of crude and distribution of finished product involve transportation. Therefore, oil refineries are localised near harbours or ports. Consumer durable industries are localised near the market place in order to save distribution cost. Government policies such as regulations on banking, export benefits, regulations on land conversions, tax concessions given to industries play an important role in localisation of industries. For instance, export facilities and tax concessions extended to the software industries by some state governments have influenced the localisation of these industries in those states. Jute industry is localised near the Hooghly river basin, cotton textile industry in western India, iron and steel industry in Chotanagpur regions and sugar industry in the Northern Great Plains. Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are the centers of industrial production in India.