Making Agriculture Productive And Competitive - Steps & Schemes

Making Agriculture Productive And Competitive – Steps & Schemes

Question: Agriculture is one of the most important sectors in the Indian economy. Several steps have been taken and schemes proposed to make agriculture productive and competitive in the Indian scenario. Provide a brief overview of these.

- To provide a fresh dimension to the condition and direction of agricultural development in India, several steps have been taken by GoI

- The government has stressed on production activities to enhance productivity on a sustainable basis

- Post production activities such as marketing and credit facilitation have also been emphasised

- Emphasis is on sustained growth associated with reduced cultivation cost, soil health rejuvenation, efficacious use of water and remunerative prices for farmer produce

- Stress is also on risk mitigation via insurance schemes

The following schemes have been rolled out by the Government in keeping with this:

- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana/PKVY

- Soil Health Card Scheme

- Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana/PMKSY

- Neem Coated Urea/NCU

- Enhanced credit facility to the farm sector

- National Agricultural Market

- Krishonnati Yojana

- National Food Security Mission/NFSM

- Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture/MIDH

- National Mission on Oilseeds & Oil Palm/NMOOP

- National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture/NMSA

- National Mission on Agricultural Extension & Technology

- Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Marketing

- Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Cooperation

- National Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund

- Price Stabilisation Fund for Cereals & Vegetables.

The following schemes and programmes have been proposed by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation:

- Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana/RKVY

- National Crop Insurance Programme/NCIP

Facts and Stats

- Food grains production rose from 52 million tonnes in 1951-52 to 265 million tonnes in 2013-14; this represents a massive increase

- The Crop Forecast Coordination Centre (CFCC), DES is putting forth central sector plan scheme “Forecasting Agricultural Output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based observations (FASAL)” since 2006

- In order to give further impetus to use of RS in agriculture, implementation strategy of the FASAL scheme underwent revision in 2011