Although the agriculture sector in India has the capacity to produce large amount of food grains, the country is unable to reach high standards in the global market due to certain constraints
A prime reason for low productivity of food grainsis that Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on the monsoon showers and shortfall of the same hurts cultivation immensely. Such has been the scenario in the current financial year, coupled with persistent droughts, which has severely affected the production of food grains.
Although the state agriculture departments receive funds from the Union government, the same is not utilised properly for the benefit of the agriculture industry. Inadequate supply of fertilisers such as Urea, Diammonium Phosphates (DAP), Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) and other subsidised fertilisers to farmers from the Central and state governments has also affected food grain production in the country.
Measures to be undertaken
In order to boost crop production, it is important that the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation under the Ministry of Agriculture undertakes certain measures towards soil conservation and rainwater harvesting. Most farmers are uneducated and unaware of pre-harvesting and post-harvesting methods that can boost crop production. Therefore, they have to be provided with proper guidance in this regard.
Farmers should be guided about the effective utilisation of available water in order to limit the requirement of water for cultivation of food crops. While sprinkler and drip irrigation systems should be made mandatory among farmers having irrigated land, flood irrigation should be banned as a lot of water is wasted in the process.
The governmentshould promote organic manure, fertilisers and biofertilisers in order to improve crop yield. Usage of integrated plant nutrition and implementation of pest management will also help to boost crop production.
Adequate financial support to farmers is also important to ensure high crop produce. Availability of bank loans will help them to purchase high quality seeds, tractors and motor pumps. Moreover, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for food grains should be fixed on the basis of the production cost to ensure at least some profits.
Significance of soil
Another important reason for the decrease in productivity in the agriculture sector is lack of sufficient organic carbon in the soil.It has been noted that the percentage of organic carbon in the soil ranges from 0.4-0.6%, which is far less than the minimum requirement of more than 1%. Organic carbon is the medium for chemical fertilisers such as Urea N46% and DAP to get dissolved in the soil. Due to non-availability of organic carbon in the soil, the chemical fertilisers remain in the soil in the form of salts. This leads to increase in soil salinity, thereby making the soil unfit for crop cultivation. Such has been the case with several cultivatable lands across the country, especially in western Maharashtra.
Some agro-based companieslike Vanashree Agriculture Private Limited are also taking steps to improve soil fertility and thereby boost crop production in the country. VanashreeAgriculture Private Limited, for instance, has sourced a technology from South-east Asia to improve the health of any type of soil if it gets affected by salinity or alkalinity, which can thereby restrict the growth of the crop. This has consequently boosted the prospects of better crop yield in the coming days.
Vishnu Najan, CEO of Vanashree Agriculture Private Limited, a mid-sized agro products manufacturer in Pune |
