Agriculture and Monsoon
Agriculture and Monsoon
Agriculture and Monsoon
AGRICULTURE- AN INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food , fiber, biofuel and other products used to sustain life. The word agriculture is the English adaptation of Latin agricultra, from ager, "a field and cultra, "cultivation" in the strict sense of "tillage of the soil" All farming generally relies on techniques to expand and maintain the lands that are suitable for raising domesticated species.
HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE
Prehistoric origins - Forest gardening Ancient history By 7000 BC, small-scale agriculture reached Egypt By 5000 BC, techniques like large-scale intensive cultivation of land, monocropping, organized irrigation, and the use of a specialized labor force, developed Middle Ages Significant improvements in the agricultural techniques and technology Gradual evolution of the scratch plough and other tools Move from a two field crop rotation to a three field crop rotation
MODERN DEVELOPMENTS
Global exchange of previously local crops Mechanization Production practices Tillage Pest control Nutrient management Water management Crop alteration and biotechnology
AGRICULTURE IN INDIA
Indian agriculture is diverse, ranging from impoverished farm villages to developed farms utilizing modern agricultural technologies. Indian Agriculture has made rapid strides since independence
From food shortages and import to self-sufficiency and exports. From subsistence farming to intensive and technology led cultivation. Today , India is the front ranking producer of many crops in the world. Ushered in through the green, white, blue and yellow revolutions
Land
Total Geographical Area - 328 million hectares Arable land area -159.7 million hectares (394.6 million acres) is the second largest in the world
Gross irrigated crop area of 82.6 million hectares (215.6 million acres) is the largest in the world Rain fed 80 million hectares Double Cropped 50 million hectares Forest 68 million hectares
89.5 million tonnes 75.6 million tonnes 30.5 million tonnes 13.4 million tonnes 20.9 million tonnes 29.9 million tonnes
Landless- 7.5 crores Marginal Farmers- 7.6 Crore ( less than 2.5 acre ) with average of 1 acre holding Small Farmers- 2.2 Crore ( Between 2.5 to 5 acre ) with average of 3.5 acre holding Large Farmers- 2.2 Crore ( more than 5 acre )
THIS TABLE PRESENTS THE NINTEEN MOST IMPORTANT AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS IN INDIA, BY ECONOMIC VALUE
Illiteracy, slow progress in implementing land reforms and inefficient finance and marketing services for farm produce. Inconsistent government policy A third of all food that is produced rots due to inefficient supply chains Irrigation facilities are inadequate, as revealed by the fact that only 52.6% of the land was irrigated in 200304, which result in farmers still being dependent on rainfall, specifically the Monsoon season.
MONSOON IN INDIA
Monsoon is a seasonal prevailing wind that lasts for several months The word is derived from the Arabic mawsim The term was first used in the Indian subcontinent to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, bringing heavy rainfall South west monsoon caused by winds flowing from arabian sea to hot thar desert in summers North east monsoon caused by winds flowing from himalayas to arabian sea
The rain-fed agriculture constitutes about 60% of Indias total net sown area The ultimate irrigation potential of the country has been assessed at around 140 million hectares (58.46 MH major irrigation and 81.42 MH from minor irrigation, of which 64.09 million hectares is from groundwater sources) Nearly 37%of the available irrigation potential from major irrigation projects in the country still remains to be exploited. Around 70% of the available potential from minor irrigation sources (81.4 MH) consists predominantly groundwater sources requires electricity and financing
Tapping ground water in gangetic plains Conservation of surface and ground water has become imperative It is important to accord high priority to sustainable development through watershed development approach. It is important to assign water rights to the community at large as a part of watershed approach Land use should be made more remunerative through the new dry land technologies and the development of infrastructure Traditional water harvesting structures like tanks have become virtually defunct and should be repaired
A watershed is an area of land that feeds all the water running under it and draining off of it into a body of water. Imagine turning an open umbrella upside down in the rain. Rain that hits anywhere within the umbrella's surface area would go to the bottom at the center of the umbrella and gets collected Topography determines where and how water flows. Waterways within the watershed all feed into that main body of water, which could be a river, lake, or stream
Declining per capita cereal intake Movement of labor away from agriculture will lead mechanization and hence productivity Provision of greater finance for agriculture Individual states participating in issues like land reforms, private participation Government priority shift from food grain production towards sustainable farming
PREDICTIONS
Weak monsoons will lead to contraction of agricultural GDP Food inflation will remain high Cutting edge technology R&D efforts will be concentrated on poor and vulnerable regions. Conservation of ground and surface water Contract farming Development of drought resistant seeds Overregulation of agriculture to continue Focus on north east region Development of dryland technologies
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