Production of agricultural crops per hectare of land is called agricultural productivity.
Agricultural efficiency : output costs/ input costs
Input cost includes the seeds cost, education cost, labour, pesticides, machines etc
Productivity is a quantitative value where as efficiency is a qualitative value.
Methods to increase productivity and efficiency
- assured irrigation
- high quality seeds
- proper dose of fertilizers pesticides and manure
- good agriculture practice such as drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation
- choosing the best cropping pattern
- soil health checking
- timely sowing
- processing
- harvesting using feedback knowledge coma innovative ideas in agriculture
- zero budget farming
Very high productivity region
- Punjab
- Haryana
- Deltic parts of eastern Wasted plains
Reason
- fertile land
- assured irrigation
- modern agriculture technology uses
Medium productivity region
- Malawa plateau
- Gujrat plateau
- Tamil Nadu plateau
Reason
- partial irrigation
- low rainfall
- no intensive cropping
Low productive region
- North eastern hills
- Bundelkhand
- Cchota Nagpur plateau
Very low productive region
- Rain shadow zone of Western ghats
- Rajasthan
Reason
- Infertile land
- Low rainfall
- No irrigation facility
- Agriculture is the backbone of any economy and especially for the Indian economy where agriculture is a very important sector. It is very large sector of economic activity which has a crucial role to play in the development of our country.
- First five year plan was based on harrod domar model.
- Agriculture is a comprehensive term and includes cultivation of crops, animal husbandry, horticulture, sericulture etc.
Contribution of agriculture
- Supply of food and raw materials– feeds the process of development
- Supply of labour– provides work for its entire workforce
- Supply of foreign exchange– helps earn via export
- Resources for capital formation– contributes a lot in generating surpluses for industrial development
- Agricultural expansion leads to increase in the income of rural people
- Contributes in GDP
- Provides food and fodder
- Enhances trade
Trends in production and productivity
- Before independence, agri productivity was low
- Low productivity was because of various factors like:
- Land was of poor quality
- productivity of labour was low
Causes of low productivity
- Conservative nature of farmers ( farmers not welcome to changes)
- agri is dependent on nature specially rainfall. Too much rain as well as too little brain causes productivity to reduce
- India deals with the problems of excess population does there is excessive pressure of population on land. This leads to fragmented, uneconomical, small land holdings
- Poor quality seeds yields poor quality crop
- Bad manure is another cause for low productivity
- Lack of proper irrigation
- Lack of financial assistance to farmers
- Indian farmers did not get proper market for their products
- Profits are taken away by middlemen
- Small size of holdings
- Vicious cycle of poverty
- Indebtedness
- Lack of marketing facilities
- No scientific methods of cultivation
- Lack of productive investment
- Poor livestock
- Excessive dependency
- No research
- Natural calamities
- Land policies and legislation
Remedies (Ways to improve)
- Irrigation facilities must improve
- Flood control measures must be adopted
- Seeds, fertilizers
- Manure should be of good quality
- Scientific rotation of crops and careful crop planning must be adopted
- Economic factors should be more favorable to the farmers
- Adequate credit facilities should be given to farmers
- MSP should be given
- Small and fragmented land should be grouped together
- Farmers should be educated. Must be given general and technical education
- Policies of Government towards agriculture should improve
- Price stability
- Efficient administration
- Corporatization of agriculture
- Tenancy reforms
- Mixed farming
- More public sector investment in agriculture
Importance of agriculture
- Contribution to national income supply of wage goods increase in employment
- Agriculture and industry foreign trade increases internal trade increases
- Income to government
- Capital formation source of saving basis of economic development social and political importance
- International importance
Factors determining agricultural productivity
- Irrigation facility
- Good seed
- Manure fertilizer
- Scientific cultivation
- Ceiling on land holding
- Soil conservation
- Agricultural marketing, education and research
- Improvement in the breed of livestock
Conclusion
- Increase in production
- variation in the trends of production
- effect of weather
- regional disparities
Causes of backwardness of agricultural productivity
- Human factors :
- pressure of population on land
- social atmosphere
- Technical factors :
- inadequate irrigation facilities, old agricultural implement
- old method of cultivation
- inadequate high yielding variety of seeds
- shortage of manure
- defective marketing
- diseases of crops and pests
- week cattle, defects in soil
- lack of credit facilities
- inadequate availability of electricity
- inadequate communication infrastructure
Main measures to develop agriculture
- Increase in area under cultivation
- Expansion of agriculture
- More use of fertilizers
- More hyv seeds
- Plant protection
- Scientific cultivation
- Mechanisation
- Development of agricultural land
- Improvement of animal husbandry
- Land reforms
- Improvement of agricultural marketing
- Credit facilities
- National agricultural insurance scheme
- Strengthening rural infrastructure
- Agricultural research
- Soil testing
- Biotech crops
- Use of biofertilizers
- Kisaan call center
- Educating farmers through TV and radio
- National rainfed area authority
- Use of information technology for promoting agriculture
Agricultural productivity = total agricultural crop production / total land area in hectares