Agriculture

1. Which is the backbone of our economy?

Agriculture

2. What is the major source of livelihood in our economy?

Agriculture

3. What are the Role of agriculture?

Contribution to National Income: Agriculture contributes even now a major share of the national income in India

Major source of Livelihood: The main source of livelihood is agriculture. Six out of every ten persons in India depend upon agriculture.

Provider of Employment: Agriculture provides employment and work to an overwhelming majority of the Indian masses. In villages, about seventy per cent of the people earn their livelihood from cultivation and allied agro-industries.

Industrial development: Agriculture provides raw materials to the industries. Cotton and Jute textile industries, sugar, vanaspathi and plantations – all these depend on agriculture. Many of our small scale and cottage industries like handloom weavings, rice husking, coir,khadi etc., depend upon agriculture for their raw materials.

International Trade: Indian agriculture plays an important role in the country’s international trade. The main exported agricultural commodities are tea, oil cakes, fruits and vegetables, spices, tobacco, cotton, coffee, sugar, raw wool and vegetable oils.

Capital Formation and Investment: The major part of production assets of the country is in the form of agricultural assets like land, irrigation facilities, tractors, agriculture implements, ploughs, pump sets and storages. Since agriculture contributes about 25 percent of the national income, this sector is the primary source of savings and hence capital formation for the economy.

Food and Fodder

In India, agriculture meets almost the entire food requirements of the people. Agriculture also provides fodder to sustain livestock whose number runs to several crores.

Economic Planning

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy and prosperity of agriculture can also largely stand for the prosperity of the Indian economy. Importance of agriculture in the national economy is indicated by many facts. For example, agriculture is the main  support for India’s transport system, since railways and roadways secure bulk of their business from the movement of goods. Internal trade is mostly in agricultural  products. Agricultural growth has direct impact on poverty eradication.

International Ranking

At the global level, Indian agriculture has ranked in certain commodities. In the case of groundnuts, India stands first in the world, for rice production it ranks second and in the case of tobacco it occupies third rank in the world.

4. What is the contribution of agriculture in economic developed

• Product contribution i.e., making available food and raw materials.
• Market contribution i.e., providing the market for producer goods and consumer goods produced in the non-agricultural sector.
• Factor contribution i.e., making available labour and capital to the nonagricultural sector and
• Foreign Exchange contribution.

5. What is the relationship between agriculture and non agriculture product?

• Production linkages
• Demand linkages and
• Savings and investment linkages.

6. What are the factors of agriculture production?

• Demographic factors
• General factors
• Institutional factors and
• Technologies factors

7. What are the general factors in agriculture?

a) Excess or surplus labour in Agriculture

b) Discouraging Rural climate

c) Inadequate non-farm services

8. What are the two main factors causing institution factor of agriculture?

a) Size of holdings

b) Defective land tenure structure

9. What are technology factors?

a) Poor inputs and techniques

b) Inadequate irrigation facilities

c) Indebtedness of the farmers

d) Inadequate Research

10. List out remedial measures for agriculture?

• Co-operative joint farming should be launched on a national scale
• Check on the population growth
• Arrangements for better manures
• Use of better seeds
• Alternative arrangements for irrigation facilities.
• Improvements in agricultural credit
• Reclamation of waste lands
• Consolidation of holdings
• Use of new implements
• Soil conservation and intensive cultivation
• Improvement in marketing system
• Encouragement to agricultural research and plant protection.

11. What are the factors affecting cropping pattern?

• Natural Factors
• Size of Holdings
• Price of Agricultural Products
• Availability of Agricultural Inputs
• Social Factors
• Government Policy:
• Knowledge about Cropping Pattern
• Crop Insurance Scheme
• Government Efforts

11. What are the measures that can be formulated by government in case of cropping pattern?

(i) To distribute high yielding variety seeds through government agencies,

ii) To make chemical fertilizers available at concessional rates

iii) To provide the facilities of storage and transportation regarding agricultural products,

iv) To make the marketing system of agricultural products effective so that the farmers may get fair price for their products.

12. What is agricultural holding?

Agricultural holding is the main determinant of the quantity, quality and structure of agricultural production. Agricultural holding means the size of land owned and cultivated by a farmer. It may be defined on the basis of ownership, (agricultural holding means the size of land owned by a farmer) and on the basis of cultivation. Agricultural holding means the size of land cultivated by a farmer at a particular time.

13. What is consolidation of holding?

A major cause of low agricultural productivity is the fragmentation and subdivision of holdings which has resulted in uneconomic holdings. Besides the tenancy system and the ownership pattern, the programme of land reforms covers the task of consolidating the scattered holdings of the small farmers so as to make them compact units in one place.

14. What is land reform?

Land reforms refer to all kinds of policy-induced changes relating to the ownership,  tenancy and management of land.

15. What are the objectives of land reforms in India?

i) Restructuring of agrarian relation to achieve egalitarian social structure.

ii) Elimination of exploitation in land relations

iii) Actualization of the goal of ‘land to the tiller’

iv) Improvement of socio-economic conditions of the rural poor by widening their land base.

v) Increasing agricultural production and productivity

vi) Facilitating land based development of rural poor

vii) Infusion of a greater measure of equality in local institutions.

16. What are the land reform measures of India?

i) Voluntary adoption facilitated by incentives provided by the State through measures like co-operative farming and consolidation of holdings.

ii) Voluntary adoption supplemented by statutory compulsion made possible by the enactment of legislation as in the case of consolidation of holdings.

iii) Compulsion exercised through different legislative measures, as with the abolition of intermediaries’, tenancy reforms, ceilings on holdings etc.

17. What is agricultural marketing?

Agricultural marketing means the economic process under which agricultural goods are exchanged. Process of agricultural marketing determines the value of agriculture products in terms of money and delivers them to their final consumer.

18. What are the importance of agricultural marketing?

1) Provides raw materials for industries.

2) Provides food grains for the entire population and fodder for cattle.

3) Provides a base for expansion of internal market of a country.

4) Helps in the expansion of international market also when marketable surplus found in excess of the demand of a country, fetches a considerable amount of foreign exchange.

19. What is marketable surplus?

• Marketable surplus may be defined as the residual of produce left with the producer after meeting his requirements for family consumption, farm needs etc. It also means the portion of produce left for sale. Marketable surplus, which is genuine and not artificial or forced, is the fountain source of not only agricultural development but also of overall economic development. It is the real surplus generated by agricultural sector.
• It can be measured as:

(Old stocks + Current output) – (Consumption + waste + inventories for next season)

20. What are the determinants of marketable surplus?

The various variables that determine marketable surplus are

i) Size of holding

ii) Production of crop

iii) Size of family and

iv) Non-farm income.

v) In addition to this, the quantity of marketable surplus will also depend on an efficient marketing system.

21. What are the importance of marketable surplus?

Rising marketable surpluses are the real surpluses, which determine the real income, real savings, real capital formation and real investment and have great importance in raising the welfare in inflation free economies. Fall in the real marketable surpluses in less developed economies, raise the prices of not only foodstuffs but also of other wage goods and invariably the real levels of living of working class may go down.

22. What are the aspects of food problem in India?

Quantitative Aspects: Quantitative aspects of food problem are related to the demand and supply of food grains. Production of foodgrains has been less than their demand for a long period. Though in the last few years, domestic production of food grains has increased considerably, yet the country has to import foodgrains in large quantities from time to time.

Qualitative Aspects: Qualitative aspect of food problem is related to nutritive elements in food. Proteins, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates etc. are the important elements of a balanced diet but these elements are not available in sufficient quantities to most of the Indian people. According to experts, a person should get 3,000 calories per day but on an average 2100 calories are available to the people in India. Most important reason of this situation is the poverty of most of the people in India.

Distributive Aspects: Distributive aspects of food problem are related to the system of marketing of gricultural products. Due to defective system of distribution, most of the persons do not get foodgrains in sufficient quantities, at right time, and at fair prices. Anti-social elements create artificial shortage of these products in market and sell them at unreasonable prices. Most important reason for this situation is administrative sluggishness.

Economic Aspects: Economic aspects of food problem are related to purchasing power of people. National income and per capita income of India are very low. The result is that most of the people in India are not in a position to afford the purchase of nourishing foodgrains in sufficient quantities.

23. What are the causes of food problem in India?

Important causes of food problem in India are as follows:

i) Rapid growth of population.

ii) Low agricultural productivity.

iii) Natural calamities.

iv) Development of commercial crops.

v) Changes in the consumption pattern.

vi) Increase in income demand for food.

vii) Economic development and urbanisation.

viii) Hoarding and black – marketing.

24. What is PDS?

Government adopted public distribution system to ensure fair distribution of food grains at controlled prices. Under the system, fair price shops are opened. Each such shop is envisaged to serve a population of about 2000. As on 31st March, 1998, there were about 4.50 lakh fair price shops (Ration shops) in the country. These shops supply rice, wheat, sugar, edible oils and kerosene to people in certain quantity at controlled prices.

25. What is buffer stock scheme?

Government started a scheme of maintaining buffer stock of important food grains to ensure their regular supply throughout the year. Whenever there is a rise in their prices, government releases them from buffer stock to stabilise prices. Buffer stock operations are normal these days and they have become a normal part of the food policy of Government of India.

26. What are the main constituents of PDS?

• Fair Price Shops or Ration Shops
• Consumers Co-operative Stores
• Shops selling Cloth at Controlled Prices
• Super Bazaars
• Kerosene Retailers
• Commodities of Distribution

27. What are the essential commodities?

Six key essential commodities viz., wheat, rice, sugar, imported edible oils, kerosene  and soft coke

28. What is the responsibility of supply of commodities?

i) Food Corporation of India for wheat, rice and other food grains,

ii) Indian Oil Corporation and Ministry of Petroleum for Kerosene,

iii) Coal India Limited for soft coke,

iv) National Textiles Corporation, and

v) State Trading Corporation for imported edible oils.

29. What is agricultural price policy?

Agricultural price policy means a policy to determine, regulate and control the prices of agricultural products.

30. What are the objectives of agricultural price policy?

i) To determine, regulate and control agricultural prices;

(ii) To prevent violent fluctuations in agricultural prices;

(iii) To provide fair prices for agricultural products to the farmers;

(iv) To provide quality goods to households at reasonable prices;

(v) To maintain an appropriate relationship and balance between the prices of  foodgrains and non-foodgrains;

(vi) To integrate prices between various states.

31. What are the price policy of the government?

• Minimum support prices
• Procurement Prices
• Issue Prices
• Retail Prices
• Buffer Stock Operations

32. What is agricultural productivity?

Agricultural productivity is the ratio of agricultural inputs and output. It indicates the efficiency with which the inputs have been utilized. It indicates how much production has been obtained from a given amount of inputs.

33. How can we calculate agricultural productivity?

Agricultural Productivity =Total Production/Amount of Inputs Employed

Productivity of Land =Total Production/area of Land

Productivity of Labour =Total Production/No of Workers Employed

Productivity of Capital =Total Production/Total Capital Employed