CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION
Indian agriculture has come a long way since the inception of planning in 1951. Agriculture is
the largest provider of livelihood in rural India. It Contributes 25 present to India's GDP. It is still
dependent primarily on the monsoons. All along there was an almost obsessive concern of
development policy with the attainment of self sufficiency in food. At the time of our gaining
independence, the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru Said, "everything else can wait, but not
agriculture". There have been several policy statements for agriculture during the last sixty years.
At the time of our gaining independence, the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru Said,
"everything else can wait, but not agriculture." There have been several policy statements for
agriculture during the last sixty years.
Policy support, production strategies, public investment in infrastructure, research and extension
for crop, livestock and fisheries have significantly helped to increase food production and its
availability. During the last 30 years, India’s food grains production nearly doubled from 102
million tons in the triennium ending 1973 to nearly 200 million tons (mt) in the triennium ending
(TE) 1999. Virtually all of the increase in the production resulted from yield gains rather than
expansion of cultivated area. Availability of food grains per person increased from 452
gm/capita/day to over 476 gm/capita/day, even as the country's population almost doubled,
swelling from 548 million to nearly 1000 million. Problems of agricultural growth and rural
development in general continue to remain, in the new millennium, as daunting as they were in
the 1950s. One major difference is that agricultural sector today faces a host of what we might
call second generation problems on which we would seek to focus.
 CHAPTER-2
LITERATURE REVIEW
The agriculture sector recorded satisfactory growth due to improved technology, irrigation,
inputs and pricing policies. Livestock, poultry, fisheries and horticulture are surging a head in
production growth in recent years and will have greater demand in the future. Industrial and
service sectors have expanded faster than agriculture sector resulting in declining share of
agriculture in national accounts. Despite the structural change, agriculture still remains a key
sector, providing both employment and livelihood opportunities to more than 70 percent of the
country's population who live in rural areas. The contribution of small farmers to the national
and household food security has been steadily increasing. The water availability for agricultural
uses has reached a critical level and deserves urgent attention of all concerned.
India has high population pressure on land and other resources to meet its food and
development needs. The natural resource base of land, water and bio-diversity is under severe
pressure. Food demand challenges ahead are formidable considering the non-availability of
favorable factors of past growth, fast declining factor productivity in major cropping systems and
rapidly shrinking resource base.
The agriculture policy must accelerate all-round development and economic viability of
agriculture in comprehensive terms. Farmers must be provided the necessary support,
encouragement and incentives. It must focus both on income and greater on-farm and off-farm
job and livelihood opportunities.
 CHAPTER-3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Types of research:-

In fourth phase, further increase in food grains production became difficult. According to
Government of India's Economic Survey, 1999-2000, "There are limits to increasing production
through area expansion as the country has almost reached a plateau in so far as cultivable land is
concerned. Hence the emphasis has to be on increasing productivity levels. The area under food
grains has more or less remained constant at around 125 million hectares since 1970-71,
(Government of India, 2000). Land for food versus fuel is becoming a major issue. For example,
the export price of wheat has risen from $197 a tons in 2005 to $263 a tons in 2007.Maize price
has gone up from about $100 a tons in 2005 to $166 a tons now.International trade is also
becoming free but not fair. There is also possibility of adverse changes in rainfall, temperature,
and the sea level as a result of global warming.
The grain mountains have disappeared and we are today in the era of diminishing grain reserves,
escalating prices, and persistence of widespread under-nutrition, (Swaminathan, 2007). While
the government rejoices over a record food grain production there are doubts about the country's
ability to produce enough to meet demand by 2020 if agricultural production does not remain
above the population growth rate.

3.2 Research Objective:-

The existing policy framework for agriculture is the outcome of many years of
experimentation. The evolution of policy and current policy framework can easily be discerned
from the changes in objectives. The strategic objectives of agricultural development in India and
changes there on can be identified as follows:
3.3 Research Design:-
The National Agricultural Insurance Scheme, Aims at protecting the farmers against crop losses
suffered on account of natural calamities such as drought, flood, hailstorm, cyclone, pests
diseases.The Central Government has enacted a new Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act,
2002 toprovide full functional autonomy anddemocratic management to co-operative societies.
Farmers now will have to pay a maximum interest rate of 9 per cent on bank loans up to
Rs.50,000 for each crop. Earlier, they had to pay a rate of 14 to 18 %.A scheme of construction,
renovation and expansion of rural godowns, called Grameen Bhandaran Yojana, was launched
during 2001-02.
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act provides for establishment of an
effective system for protection of plant varieties and plant breeders and for encouraging the
development of new varieties of plants. The plant varieties will be registered for plant breeder
rights, based on the criteria of distinctness, uniformity and stability. The scheme aims at utilizing
the vast mass media infrastructure available in the country for providing agriculture-related
extension services. The scheme aims at addressing queries and questions raised by farmers
throughout the country. The farmer can access a Call Centre through toll free lines by dialing
1551 any time. The questions will be answered by agri graduates and specialists. The
globalization of agricultural trade will bring to the fore access to markets; new opportunities for
employment and income generation; productivity gains and increased flow of investments into
sustainable agriculture and rural development. I believe that if managed well, the liberalization
of agricultural markets will be beneficial to developing countries in the long run, It will force the
adoption of new technologies, shift production functions upwards and attract new capital into the
deprived sector. However, this will only come to pass if we are mindful of the interests of
billions of small and subsistence oriented farmers, fisher-folk and forest dwellers in the short and
medium tern. So far the magic of globalization has not been felt in India. During the past one-
decade of liberalization certain trends such as deceleration of the growth rate of agricultural
GDP, declaration in yield growth rates, and low non-agricultural employment have emerged
against expectations. As we globalize, however, it is imperative that we do not forget social
aspirations for a more just, equitable and sustainable way of life. Trade agreements must be
accompanied by operationally effective measures to ease the adjustment process for a small
farmer in developing countries. Information is power and will underpin future progress and
prosperity. Efforts must be made to strengthen the informatics in agriculture by developing new
databases, linking databases with international databases and adding value to information to
facilitate decision making at various levels. Development of production models for various agro-
ecological regimes to forecast the, production potential should assume greater importance. Using
the remote sensing and GIS technologies, natural and other agricultural resource should be
mapped at micro and macro levels and effectively used for land and water use planning as well
as agricultural forecasting, market intelligence and e-business, contingency planning and
prediction of disease and pest incidences.
 CHAPTER -4

CONCLUSION
The agricultural sector is of vital importance for the region. It is undergoing a process of
transition to a market economy, with substantial changes in the social, legal, structural,
productive and supply set-ups, as is the case with all other sectors of the economy. These
changes have been accompanied by a decline in agricultural production for most countries, and
have affected also the national seed supply sectors of the region. The region has had to face
problems of food insecurity and some countries have needed food aid for IDPs and refugees.

Due to the relatively low demographic pressure projected for the future, the presence of
some favorable types of climates and other positive factors, including a very wide formal seed
supply sector, it should be possible to overcome problems of food insecurity in the region as a
whole, and even to use this region to provide food to other food-deficient regions. Opportunities
must therefore be created to reach these results. Agricultural policies must be flexible enough to
accommodate further changes. The basic building blocks, including land and work force, must be
preserved and allowed to respond to advances in technology. When an opportunity arises, the
land and personnel must be there to seize on it.