Atmanirbhar farmers are the future of agriculture in India

BookMyCrop Nov 20, 2021

India's centuries-old farming traditions are founded on concepts of sustainability, creativity, and hardworking, entrepreneurial farmers. Agro-ecology-based farming, with its enormous network of scientific institutions and political will, may undoubtedly shift the country's agricultural direction.

The paradigm shift must begin with legislators shifting from a production-centric to a sustainability-focused perspective. They have yet to establish faith in the agroecological farming paradigm.

Increased demand for quantity, quality, and healthy food, as well as variety, would result from India's growing population, rising average income, and globalisation effects. As a result, the pressure to produce more quantity, variety, and quality of food will continue to grow as available cultivable land decreases.

India is blessed with huge swathes of fertile terrain, which the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) divides into 15 agro-climatic zones and can support a diverse range of crops and weather conditions. India is the world's greatest producer of pulses, jute, spices, milk, cashew, and tea, as well as wheat, cotton, oilseeds, fruits, rice, vegetables, and sugarcane.

Despite these facts, the average productivity of many Indian crops is extremely poor. In the future decade, the country's population is expected to expand to become the world's largest, and feeding them will be a serious worry. Farmers are still unable to make a decent living.

For planners and all other stakeholders, the future of agriculture is a critical issue. The government and other organisations are working to address some of India's most pressing agricultural issues, such as smallholder farming, primary and secondary processing, supply chains, infrastructure that supports efficient resource use, and marketing by decreasing market intermediaries. Work on cost-effective technologies that safeguard the environment and conserve our natural resources is required.

Liberalisation, Privatisation, and Globalisation changes had a faster impact on the inputs market. After 2003, agricultural marketing reforms changed the way agricultural outputs were sold by allowing private investment in developing markets, contract farming, and futures trading, among other things. These adjustments to marketing acts have resulted in some changes but at a lower rate.

In addition, India's information technology revolution, new agricultural technologies, private investments, particularly in research and development, and government efforts to revitalise the cooperative movement to address the problems of smallholdings and small produce, among other things, are changing the face of agriculture in India.

Many agricultural firms started by highly educated young people demonstrate that they comprehend the enormous potential of investing money and effort in this industry. Over the next decade, the cumulative effects of technology will alter the face of agriculture.

All of the limits in agriculture make productivity and return complicated, but India's agriculture sector still has a lot of untapped potentials.

Many individuals, big companies, startups, and entrepreneurial ventures are attracting a lot of investments in innovations, inventions, research and development, and other aspects of the business due to favourable weather and soil conditions, high demand for food, untapped opportunities, and various fiscal incentives provided by the government for inputs, production infrastructure, availability of cheap credit facilities, and marketing and export promotion.

All of the agriculture's issues are being converted into opportunities, and this process is the future of agriculture.

The current agricultural scenario in the country should serve as a wake-up call, and this should be seen as the 'Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya' moment for Indian agriculture, whose future is rooted in the genuine and true spirit of Atmanirbharata.

Disclaimer: All the data mentioned in this article is only for information purposes and is fetched from reliable sources.

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