By: Prof. R K Yadav, Deptt of Genetics and Plant Breeding C.S. Azad Univ. of Agril. & Tech. Kanpur & Executive Editor-ICN Group
India is agriculture based country where more than 60 per cent of population depends upon agriculture or allied activities.
KANPUR: Agriculture sector is the backbone and crucial in our Indian economy which provides the basic ingredients to mankind and raw material for rapid industrialisation sector development. No doubt that beside manufacturing sector, agriculture sector provides great employment opportunities for rural people/ youth on large scale for their livelihood and also provide an entrepreneurship.
The agricultural sector continues to be a fundamental source of employment and income generation in India. With an estimated growth rate of about 2.5 per cent, about four million new rural workers are added to the labour force annually imposing a serious challenge to policy makers to address the need for employment generation.
Improvement in agricultural productivity can significantly absorb this work force but this alone will not meet the current challenge of bludgeoning labour force. What could be address this challenge is a demand led diversification into high value agricultural activities such as horticulture and livestock rearing.
Diversification of agriculture into high value agri-business is expected to generate a special wave of economic growth and employment generation in the agriculture sector. One can identify four clear trends that can augment agricultural diversification such as.
- The economic weight of high value agricultural produce (such as horticulture and livestock produce) in the domestic food economy is increasing.
- Domestic demand for processed and value added food products is increasing.
- The global food economy is increasingly becoming an open market place forging new avenues for Indian food products.
- Globally, trade in value added food products is gaining importance over agricultural raw materials. Importantly, most food products in this are either perishable produce or are processed food products.
These trends signify that the economic weight (value added and employment generation) of agriculture is likely to shift in two direction.
Horizontally within the farming sector from cultivation of basic food produce (such as cereals and pulses) to high value farming activities (such as horticulture and live stock farming).
Clearly two value proposition that open up huge opportunities for rural incomes and employment generation are (a) Diversification into high value produce on farm such as fruits and vegetables and (b) live stock products including animal husbandry and food processing based on agricultural products.
