Agriculture and rural development can alleviate poverty by creating jobs, increasing incomes, ensuring food security, and promoting social development.
Rural development does not mean merely infrastructure and agriculture development of the rural areas, it should encompass healthcare, education, farm inputs, and market access as well, said Dr Davish Jain, National President of the Center for Education Growth and Research, New Delhi, while addressing a technical session on Rural Development and Agriculture during a national workshop on `Indian Development Model' organized by the NITI Aayog in association with EGROW.
He said India's economy heavily relies on agriculture, with 60% of the population dependent on it, though it contributes only 20% to the GDP.
Progress has been made in rural development and agriculture in the last decade, including increased agricultural GDP, food grain production, and reduced rural poverty. However, despite encouraging progress in the agriculture sector and rural development in the country, India's agro sector is still facing challenges like low productivity of agriculture produce, small land holdings, lack of modern technology, and post-harvest losses.
To overcome these challenges, we need increased investment in research, promote land consolidation, improve technology access, to reduce post-harvest losses, and enhance market linkages, Dr Jain added.
To boost soybean and oil seeds productivity in the country, Dr Jain, who is also the Chairman of the Soybean Processors Association of India, underlined the need for promoting research and development for development of high-yielding and climate-resilient soybean and oil seed varieties, providing training, technical assistance to farmers on modern soybean and oil seed.
and promoting the use of certified seeds and fertilizers to improve soybean and oil seed productivity. He said that addressing these challenges can drive India's economic growth and self-reliance. The workshop was also addressed by eminent academicians, bureaucrats, and the Government of India.
