Gujarat has done much to boost the agriculture sector and incentivise farmers. Other States can learn
The Narendra Modi Government recently organised the Vibrant Gujarat Global Agriculture Summit, which was the first of its kind initiative in the country that gave farmers the opportunity to learn about the best practices in agriculture across the world. Here, many questions come to mind: Why did a similar idea not strike other leaders or even the Union Government to boost the agriculture sector in the interest of the farming community, especially in the light of increasing suicides by our farmersIJ
Given the alarming cases of such suicides, there is an urgent need to rethink the idea of agriculture. According to the Crime Records Bureau, suicide of farmers in India stand at a whopping 2,85,000 since 1995. Approximately, 150 lakh cultivators have quit the occupation.
But the picture in Gujarat is different in this sector. Earlier, the State never figured on the agriculture map of the nation, but that has changed in the last few years. Ten years ago, the land under irrigation was 12,000 hectares, but now the figure stands at 9,00,000 hectares. This is a result of the State Government's avowed commitment towards farmers and efforts to boost the agriculture sector.
Chief Minister Narendra Modi has given the ‘lab to land’ mantra to achieve success in the field of agriculture, connecting its agricultural universities and its knowledge resources to the farmlands of the State. For this, Mr Modi has initiated an annual programme named, Krushi Mahotsava. Gujarat has pioneered the initiative of soil health card, which enables farmers to plant select crops after strengthening and boosting soil fertility with the necessary nutrients, and in turn harvesting a bumper crop. All these efforts have ensured that Gujarat's agriculture growth remains in double digits, way ahead of what it was some years back. This has impressed so many across the world and even agriculture expert MS Swaminathan has praised the Gujarat effort. Ashok Gulati, the Chairman of Government of India’s Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, during one of his meetings with Mr Modi, had termed Gujarat's over 10 per cent continuous agriculture growth as ‘quite an exciting phenomena’ and ‘inspirational’ for other States.
To ensure the farmers remain abreast with global agriculture trends, benefits of the IT revolution should be made available to them. While unfortunately the overall share of farming in GDP has dropped considerably, in Gujarat it has largely increased due to the scientific methods of cultivation. Moreover, concerted efforts involving all from agriculture sector have led to the State's annual agriculture income cross Rs 1,00,000 crore as compared to Rs 9,000 crore recorded a few years ago. This was achieved because of the Gujarat Government's modern approach to agricultural techniques and the perseverence of the farmers.
Recalling Mahatma Gandhi's dream of Swaraj, Mr Modi rightly says, “Swaraj will only be achieved if villages of India are made prosperous and to make villages prosperous, we need to bring prosperity in agriculture”. For this, Gujarat Government has set agriculture policies in right frame and direction.
Agriculture is the key to India's socio-economic fabric as two-third of the population is directly or indirectly engaged in it and in allied activities. The Gujarat Government has provided a platform to farmers. Over 200 companies from over 15 nations showcased their expertise in the Agro Summit. More than 10,000 farmers participated at kisan panchayat.
If we compare the health of the country’s agriculture sector with China, it is not good. In 2000, the gross arable land in India was 162 million hectares while in China, it was 123 million hectares. Of this 32.29 per cent of the land was irrigated in India, while it was 40 per cent in China. In 2009, the gross arable land in India was 157 million hectares and in China it was reduced to 110 million hectares. However, while in India only 39 per cent of the land was irrigated, in China, the number was 52 per cent.
It is interesting to note that irrigated area in both the countries is roughly the same — 66 million hectares. India has much larger arable area. The production in China is double that of India. If we look at productivity of agriculture with respect to cereals and pulses, China stands at a whopping 5,399kg/hectare yield, while India is merely 1,931kg/hectare.
Value added by agriculture to the GDP in India in year 1990 was $100 billion and China was also roughly at the same level. However, in the year 2010, valued added by agriculture to the GDP of China was $587 billion, while the number for India stood at $311 billion. Thus, for China even though its agriculture constitutes merely 10 per cent of its GDP, its contribution to the economy is far greater than that of India.
A comparison between Gujarat and the rest of India in agricultural growth is interesting. In terms of compounded annual growth rate of certain major agriculture produces like food grain India is at 1.90 per cent while Gujarat is at 6.33 per cent, in pulses India is at 2.54 per cent, while, Gujarat stands at 7.50 per cent. In cotton India is at 13.30 per cent and Gujarat at 21.56 per cent