Introduction
This paper examines the importance of agriculture in
poverty and sustainable econamic
alleviation and sustainable econamic
growth and development of the least
development countries (INDIA). It highlights key elements requied to
assist the INDIA exploit their agricultural potential so as to benefit from the
changes expected from Globalization
Globalization offers many opportunities and challenges for
the INDIA
Although
globalization offers opportunities for groth and development in all parts of
the world, the hopes and promises
attached to rapid liberalisation of trade and finance have not so far been
fulfilled in many developing countries, and particularly so in the INDIA. in
fact, the latter are
Increasingly
becoming marginalized, especially in agriculture.
INDIA face many difficulties, both internal and
external,in their efforts to develop their agriculture and to achieve their
objectives of poverty reduction through improving food security and increasing
export earnings. Internal difficulties include low productivity, inflexible
production and trade structures, low skill capacity, low life expectancy and
educational attainments, poor infrastructure, and deficient institutional and
policy frameworks. At the same time, with the growing integration of markets due to globalization
and liberalization,their economies face a more fiercely competitive external
trading environment. They continue to export a limited range of primary
commodities that are highly vulnerable to instability in supply, demand and a
decline determine the level of harvest and, therefore, with each country’s
domestic supply often varying along with the weather, INDIA can rapidly move
from a surplus to a deficit situation. In addition, their external debt remains
large. Their inability to compete in
world markets, as well as in their home markets, is also reflected in their
rising food import bills.
Agriculture
in the India has remained largely
underdeveloped, despite its importance
Agriculture
is the backbone of the India. It accounts for between 30 to 60 percent of the
gross domestic product among the India, employs more people than any othere
secpor represents a major source of foreign exchange, supplies the bulk of
basic food and provides subsistence and other income to more than half of the
India population. The strong forward and backward linkages within the rural
sector and with other sectors of the economy provide added stimulus for growth
and income generation.
Agricultural
output in India rose during 1900- 00 at an annual average rate of 2.8 percent,
exceeding the rate of 1.9 percent in 1982- 90, with some slight improvements in
per capita terms. However, recent data
for 2000-05 indicate that there was virtually no increase in output, or even a
slight decline. The situation was the
same for per capital staple food production.
In addition, slow food production growth and sharp annual fluctuations
in output remain major and chronic problems for the India, constituting the
major causes of their rising poverty and food insecurity. Between 1995-97 and
2002-04, the proportion of undernourished in total population in the India
increased from 34 percent to 41 percent while t5he absolute number of
undernourished is estimated to have increased from 116 million to 169 million.
India have abundant resource potential
to expand agriculture
The most fundamental factor influencing the
agricultural production potential of a country is the availability of
arable land. Land is the essential prior
resource needed for crop, animal and forestry production. India have widely diverse agro-ecological
situations, with varying availability and
quality of arable land and varying climatic conditions. Prospects for agricultural development necessarily hinge on these
condierations. Although the ratio of
abandoned land to total land area on average for the India havs not changed
much for the last 3-4 decades at 62 percent, this ratio exceeds the average in
18 India and is over 90 percent in a number of them. In the bulk of the India, abandoned area
occupies between 30-60 percent of total land area. IN contrast, agricultural area occupies around
38 percent of total land area during 23000-03.
During is same period, the proportion of arable land in agricultural
land stood at 18 percent with only 1.5 percent under permanent crops.
Yet they have experienced very limited
gain in agricultural productivity
In the India the contribution of increases in productivity to
agricultural growth has been limited.
Horizontal expansion, i.e. bringing more land under cultivation, remains
the dominant source of growth. Given
increasing pressure on agricultural resources, however, faster agricultural
growth, particularly in countries with limited scope for ln expansion, will
require continuing increases in agricultural productivity from its present
relatively low level. Available evidence
shows that the potential productivity gains are considerable. In terms of agricultural value added per
worker, productivity increased, though
only slightly, 23 out of the 32 India for which data are agricultural value
added per worker in the India appears to be relatively low, suggesting that
there is much room for improvement.
Moreover much of the agricultural sector in the India consists mostly of
informal micro and small enterprises, which face limitations of small market
size, poor business conditions and lack of regional integration, pointing to a
need for a more effective policy for their development.
Despite the
potential for expanding food production the India are increasingly dependent on
the food imports
Domestic consumption of agricultural
products in the India varies widely between food and non-food products. Non-food products such as raw materials and
tropical beverages are basically produced for export. The little that goes to the domestic market
is destined essentially for local processing industries, which in turn export
the bulk of their produce. In contrast,
the domestic consumption of food products is a large and growing proportion
equaling the growth rate of population but more recently by 3.5 percent during
2000-03. For many commodities,
production has not, and perhaps will not, keep up with import growth for maize and poultry are driving the import growth.
In sum, trends in production, consumption and trade amply demonstrate the increasing
import dependence of the India of food.
The role of women in agriculture needs to be fully appreciated in
development policy and planning:
Rural women play an important role in producing the world staple crops
and providing labour for post-harvest activities. There role is particularly prominent in the
India Wars, increasing rural-to-urban migration of men search of paid
employment, together with rising mortality attributed to HIV/AIDS, have led to an increase in the number of
female-headed households in the developing world. This feminization of agriculture has placed a
considerable burden on women’s capacity to produce, provide, and prepare food
in the face of already considerable obstacles.
However, women’s full potential in agriculture must be realized if the
goal of promoting agricultural and rural development is to be achieved.
Conclusion:
The situation facing the India and their today may be more difficult
that of developing countries that
achieved sustained agricultural growth in the last three decades. The new and emerging challenges confronting
them can be identified under three decades. The new and emerging challenges confronting
then can be identified under three broad heading overcoming their
marginalization resulting from integration of markets due to environment .Policy makes be swinging back to a more
balanced and nuanced understanding of the importance of agriculture and of the
potential roles of state support.
