Paragraph on Indian Agriculture!
Agriculture includes rising of crops from the land, animal husbandry, Agroforestry and pisciculture. India is pre-eminently an agricultural country.
Agriculture has been practised in India since time immemorial. It plays a vital role in the economy of India.
Till 1971, about 80 per cent of India’s population Jived in rural areas and depended directly or indirectly on agriculture. It contributed about 45 per cent of Gross Domestic Production (GDP) at that time. The relative importance of agriculture has reduced considerably since then due to rapid development of other occupations such as mining, manufacturing, transport and trade.
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Today, agriculture and allied sectors contribute nearly 25 per cent of GDP, while about 65-70 per cent of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, and it still forms the hub of India’s economy.
In addition to providing food and fodder to large population of human beings and livestock, respectively, agriculture is the main source of raw materials for several key industries. Sugarcane, cotton, jute and oil seeds are some of the outstanding agricultural raw materials used in industries.
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India is a unique country from agricultural point of view. Its enormous expanse of level plains, rich soils, high percentage of culturable land, wide climatic variety with adequate aggregate rainfall combined with sufficient temperature, ample sunshine and long growing season provide solid base to agriculture.
A healthy and advanced agriculture creates demand for several industrial products like tractors, harvesters, threshers, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc. Moreover, income generated in the agricultural sector creates ready market for various manufactured goods.
Thus agriculture has double relation with industry. It acts as a supplier of raw materials to the industries and as consumer of industrial products. It goes without saying that the prosperity of industrial sector largely depends upon the agricultural prosperity. In fact, prosperity of the entire nation depends upon the prosperity of agriculture.
Agricultural sector also contributes a lot to the export trade of India. Bulk of India’s export trade consists of agricultural products and agro-processed products. The major agricultural commodities of export are tea, coffee, cashew kernels, raw cotton, oil cakes, tobacco, spices, fruits and vegetables. There is great need to increase agricultural production so that sufficient exportable surplus commodities are available after meeting our domestic requirements.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that agriculture furnishes the central sinew of Indian economy. A prosperous farmer means a prosperous nation.