Indian Economy For UPSC CSE Exam (Chapter-8) Part-2

Agriculture And Food Management

Green Revolution

1960s
Wheat
Rice

Components of Green Revolution

HYV Seeds
Chemical Fertilizers (NPK)
Irrigation
Pesticides/Germicides
Credit

Impact

Socio Economic Impact
Ecological Impact
- Water table
Toxicity in Soil and food

Future

Evergreen Revolution
Doubling the farm income

Cropping Patterns

Undergone significant changes
Cultivated area remains more or less constant but the increased demand for food

Factors responsible for Cropping Patterns

Geographical factors: Soil, landforms, precipitation, moisture, altitude, etc.
Socio-cultural factors: Food habits, festivals, tradition, etc.
Infrastructure factors: Irrigation, trans-port, storage, trade and marketing, post-harvest handling and processing, etc.
Economic factors: Financial resource base, land ownership, size and type of land holding, household needs of food, fodder, fuel, fibre and finance, labour availability, etc.
Technological factors: Improved varieties of seeds and plants, mechani-sation, plant protection, access to information, etc

Changes in Cropping Patterns

Pre-Green Revolution Period
- socio-cultural and economic factors
Green Revolution Period
- economic, infrastructural and technological (eg MSP)
Reform Period
- 1991
- Zero Budget Natural Farming
- focus on irrigation water productivity to raise agricultural productivity

Animal Rearing

Plays a vital role in the economy of the village
It has remain an integral part Village economy
It includes rearing of cows, camels, buffaloes, goats, pigs, ships, etc.
It also contributes to the national income and socio-economic development of the country

Animal Rearing

It Supplements the income of the family
It generates gainful employment in the rural sector
It helps the landless labourers and marginal farmers
Gives alternative source of income to women
Provides cheap nutritional food in villages
Acts as cushion support during drought, famine and other natural calamities;
Promotes inclusive growth
Promotes sustainable agriculture

It contributes about 29 per cent of the total agricultural, fishing and forestry sectors
9 Per Cent Growth Registered in Livestock Sector During Last Five Years
7 Per Cent Average Annual Growth Rate Registered in Fisheries Sector
06 Per Cent Average Annual Growth Rate in Food Processing Sector
Economic Survey states that fisheries remain an important source of food, nutrition, employment and income in India.
It provides livelihood to about 16 million fishers and fish farmers in the country.
Fisheries sector has registered annual average growth rate of more than 7 per cent in the recent years.
Recognizing the importance of the sector independent department of Fisheries has been created in 2019

Dairy Sector

India continues to be the largest producer of milk in the world.
Milk production in the country was 187.7 million tonnes in 2018-19 and registered a growth rate of 6.5 per cent over the previous year
The per capita availability of milk has reached a level of 394 grams per day during 2018-19.
Egg production in the country, which was 95217 million numbers in 2017-18, increased to 103318 million numbers in 2018-19.

Dairy Sector
Important Schemes for Milk Production:
Intensive Dairy Development Programme.
Strengthening Infrastructure for Quality and Clean Milk Production, Assistance to Cooperatives.
Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Scheme.
National Project for Cattle and Buffalo Breeding.

National Dairy Plan I

It is a Central Sector Scheme.
Fundingwas through a line of credit from the International Development Association (IDA),
Fund will flow from Department of Animal Husbandry Dairying & Fisheries (DADF) to NDDB and in turn to eligible End Implementing Agencies (EIAs).
NDP I had focused 18 major milk producing statesnamely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh which together account for over 90% of the country’s milk production.

Objective

To help increase productivity of milch animals and thereby increase milk production to meet the rapidly growing demand for milk.
To help provide rural milk producers with greater access to the organised milk-processing sector.

NDP 2

8000 cr layout
expanding the coverage into uncovered areas.
Today, there are about 3.20 lakh potential villages.
Out of them, NBD 1 reached to about 2 lakh villages.
About 1.25 lakh villages are still uncovered.

Other Schemes

Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog to upscale sustainable genetic up gradation, production and productivity of cows.

Other Schemes

Pig Rearing Scheme
aimed to assist farmers/landless labourers/co-operatives and the tribals particularly in the North-Eastern states by rearing
Encourage commercial rearing by adopting scientific methods and infrastructure creation;
Create supply chain for the meat industry
Encourage value addition for better income.

Food Management

One of the most daunting task of government
Twin Challenge of Food Production and Food Storage
Government came up with various schemes since independence

Minimum Support Price

Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices.
The minimum support prices are announced by the Government of India at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
MSP is price fixed by Government of India to protect the producer – farmers – against excessive fall in price during bumper production
The minimum support prices are a guarantee price for their produce from the Government.

Minimum Support Price

The major objectives are to support the farmers from distress sales and to procure food grains for public distribution.
In case the market price for the commodity falls below the announced minimum price due to bumper production and glut in the market, government agencies purchase the entire quantity offered by the farmers at the announced minimum price.

Historical perspective of MSP

Till the mid 1970s, Government announced two types of administered prices
Minimum Support Prices (MSP)
The MSPs served as the floor prices and were fixed by the Government in the nature of a long-term guarantee for investment decisions of producers, with the assurance that prices of their commodities would not be allowed to fall below the level fixed by the Government, even in the case of a bumper crop.

Historical perspective of MSP

Procurement Prices
Procurement prices were the prices of kharif and rabi cereals at which the grain was to be domestically procured by public agencies (like the FCI) for release through PDS.
It was announced soon after harvest began.
Normally procurement price was lower than the open market price and higher than the MSP.
Discontinued now

Determination of MSP

Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP since 1985, earlier named as Agricultural Prices Commission) takes into account, apart from a comprehensive view of the entire structure of the economy of a particular commodity or group of commodities, the following factors:-
Cost of production
Changes in input prices
Input-output price parity
Trends in market prices
Demand and supply
Inter-crop price parity
Effect on industrial cost structure
Effect on cost of living
Effect on general price level
International price situation
Parity between prices paid and prices received by the farmers.
Effect on issue prices and implications for subsidy

Swaminathan Standard

There are two formulae to calculate cost of production.
One is to include cost of seed, labour (human, animal and machine), fertiliser, manure, insecticides and other miscellaneous costs which is denoted as A2 and add to it the family labour (FL).
The other formula addition of cost on imputed rent and interest on owned land to A2+FL.

Swaminathan Standard

So the final cost of production would be C2=A2+FL+cost imputed on rent and interest on owned land.
The farmers have been demanding that MSP should be 1.5 times of C2, which was what the Swaminathan Commission had also suggested, and not 1.5 times of A2+FL

Q1. Consider the following statements regarding the cropping season in India

The kharif cropping season is during the South-West/Summer Monsoon
The rabi cropping season is during North-East/Returning/Winter Monsoon
The crops grown between March and June are summer crops, known as zaid

Select the CORRECT statement(s) using the codes given below

1, 2 and 3
1 and 2
3 Only
2 and 3

Ans: 1
Explanation:

All statements are correct.
There are certain special terms used to understand the cropping seasons of India. The agricultural crop year in India is from July to June. The Indian cropping season is classified into two main seasons-
(i) kharif and (ii) rabi based on the monsoon.
The kharif crops include rice, maize, sorghum, pearl millet/bajra, finger millet/ragi (cereals), arhar (pulses), soyabean, groundnut (oilseeds), cotton, etc.
The rabi crops include wheat, barley, oats (cereals), chickpea/gram (pulses), linseed, mustard (oilseeds) etc.

Q2. Consider the following pairs with regard to the classification of agricultural holdings

Economic Holding – Maximum size of the holding which must be possessed and owned by a family
Family Holding – It is a ‘plough unit’ which is neither less nor more for an average size family to cultivate it properly
Optimum Holding – It is that holding which ensures a minimum satisfactory standard of living in a family

Select the INCORRECT pair(s) using the codes given below

1 Only
1 and 3
2 and 3
None of the above

Ans: 2
Explanation:

Pairs 1 and 3 are matched incorrectly.
Agricultural holdings have been classified into three categories:
Statement 1: Economic Holding: It is that holding which ensures a minimum satisfactory standard of living in a family. In other words, economic holding is a minimum essential area for profitable agriculture.
Statement 3: Optimum Holding Maximum size of the holding which must be possessed and owned by a family is called optimum holding.
Statement 2 is correct: Family holding is that holding which gives work to an average size family having one plough under the traditional farming system.

Q3. Which of the following is not true about the impact of Green Revolution?

Food production increased in such a way that many countries became self-sufficient
Among Indian farmers, it reduced the inter-personal as well as inter-regional inequalities
The most devastating negative impact of the Green Revolution was ecological
None of the above

Ans: 2
Explanation:
Socio-economic Impact of Green Revolution:

Food production increased in such a way (wheat in 1960s and rice, by 1970s) that many countries became self-sufficient and some even emerged as food exporting countries.
But the discrepancy in farmers’ income, it brought with itself increased the inter-personal as well as inter-regional disparities/inequalities in India.