Agriculture is not growing in Punjab. In fact, its sluggish growth has affected the growth rate of the primary sector, and eventually the State’s overall growth rate. During 2014-15, the agriculture and livestock activities grew at 0.50 per cent in negative, according to the advance estimates, against 3.18 per cent during previous financial year and 0.51 per cent in 2012-13.
Moreover, agriculture is likely to grow at 2.36 per cent in negative in the current fiscal year, against 2.35 per cent in 2013-14. This decline in agriculture sector resulted in slow growth rate of State’s overall economy at 5.32 per cent in 2014-15 at constant prices (2004-05), compared with 5.73 per cent during previous year. Against this, the industry and service sectors are expected to grow at the rate of 2.04 per cent and 9.58 per cent, respectively in 2014-15, against 2.08 per cent and 9.01 per cent.
Witnessing slow growth rate since past five financial years, except 2013-14, (from 2009-10 to 2012-13), Punjab’s agriculture is wilting away due to several reasons — “stagnant” productivity, no scientific breakthroughs, fully exploited irrigation and land potential, overuse of natural resources, among others. This and much more was highlighted in the State’s Economic Survey for the
year 2014-15. The State Government’s initiatives to check groundwater depletion and popularising crop diversification have so far yielded no tangible results. With harvesting the maximum it can grow, the survey pointed that there was “no further scope of increasing area under agriculture and any future growth in agriculture has to necessarily come from increased productivity”. It stated State’s “vibrant” agriculture sector is now facing “serious challenges” from deteriorating natural resource base due to monoculture of wheat-paddy crop rotation, stagnation in yields of principal crops, declining farm incomes, and rural indebtedness.
To put the State’s agri economy back on track and restore its “waning glory”, it suggested “urgent initiatives” like greater focus on research and development, crop diversification, and rural non-farm activities. The survey pointed that the State’s cropping intensity has already reached its saturation points and irrigation potential has also been fully exploited. “Almost 99 per cent of the cultivable land in the State is under plough… Productivity has also stagnated in the absence of any major scientific breakthroughs,” it stated.
Despite having “higher” yield of wheat and rice than national average, it is also “nearing stagnation”. The Survey opined, “Increasing yield of these food grain crops through “scientific interventions holds the key to sustain their high production in the future”. “The sustainability of agriculture in the State is at serious risk due to rapid depletion of groundwater resources and excessive reliance on wheat-rice cropping pattern. Diversification is called for to overcome the environmental problems induced by wheat-rice cropping cycle and to diversify income sources of small and marginal farmers,” said the Survey.
It was suggested that “better management practices and measure to improve input resource efficiency” are needed to check the depleting water table and soil degradation. High dependence on tube-wells for irrigation led to rapid depletion in groundwater. Approximately 70 percent area constituting central Punjab faces depletion with 109 out of 138 blocks have already declared over exploited or dark blocks. More than 13 lakh tube-wells irrigate about three million hectares of land in Punjab.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent visit to Punjab, had also expressed his concern over the depleting water table and stressed on adopting different irrigation techniques including drip irrigation, zero tillage system, sprinklers, etc. Modi had also called upon the farmers to make “minimum use of fertilizers to maintain the soil health” of their farms. In this direction, the State Government has issued more than 1.12 lakh soil health cards to the farmers during 2014-15.
Concerned over high incidence of debt among farmer households, the Survey called for “urgent steps” to enhance profitability of agriculture by “revising criteria adopted by the Centre for determination of MSP, incentive for non-farm activities by small and marginal farmers to support agriculture incomes, and appropriate insurance schemes against crop failures”.
The agriculture sector in Punjab is showing signs of a serious slowdown over the past few years. The sector's growth rate has remained below two per cent in 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13, with growth turning negative in 2009-10 and 2012-13. To ensure farm growth, Punjab Budget this year has allocated Rs3,512 crores aiming at strengthening the agriculture and allied sectors — including Rs300 crore for Punjab Agricultural University, Rs230 crore for strengthening of agriculture and allied sectors under Rashrtiya Krishi Vikas Yojna, Rs63.50 crore for National Horticulture Mission, and Rs50 crore for National Food Security Mission.
Moreover, the Government is hoping that the proposed Post-Graduate Institute of Horticultural Research in the state would strengthen horticultural research coupled with boosting the State’s crop diversification programme.