Agriculture and Food Management

  • The Agriculture sector experienced buoyant growth in past two years, accounting for a sizeable 18.8% (2021-22) in Gross Value Added (GVA) of the country registering a growth of 3.6% in 2020-21 and 3.9% in 2021-22.
  • Livestock and fisheries have been experiencing buoyant growth and has helped the sector perform well.

Investments in Agriculture and Allied Sector

  • Greater participation of private corporate sector, whose investment rates are currently as low as2 to 3 per cent in agriculture, will help in improving private investment in agriculture.

Agricultural Production

  • As per Fourth Advance Estimates for 2020-21, total foodgrain production in the country is estimated at a record 308.65 million tonnes which is 11.15 million tonnes higher than that during 2019-20. As per the First Advance Estimates for 2021-22 (kharif only), total foodgrain production in the country is estimated at a record level of 150.50 million tonnes which is higher by 0.94 million tonnes than kharif foodgrain production of 2020-21.

Edible Oil

  • Oilseed production in India has grown by almost 43 per cent from 2015-16 to 2020-21. It has however lagged behind its consumption requiring import of edible oils.
  • India is the world’s second largest consumer and number one importer of vegetable oil.

Minimum Support Price

  • Minimum Support Price (MSP) policy is being used to promote crop diversification.
  • Due to nutritional requirements, changing dietary pattern and to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses and oilseeds production, the MSP has been fixed relatively higher for these crops.

Crops Diversification

  • The existing cropping pattern is skewed towards cultivation of sugarcane, paddy and wheat which has led to depletion of fresh ground water resources at an alarming rate in many parts of our country
  • Shifting some area from staple cereals to high value produce can lead to a sizable increase in the returns for farmers. This would also bring in water use efficiency and sustainability of soil health.

Credit

  • As a part of the ANB announcement, Government announced Rs. 2 lakh crore concessional credit boost to 2.5 crore farmers through Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs).
  • In pursuance of this, as on 17th January 2022, banks have issued KCC to 2.70 crore eligible farmers.

Water and Irrigation

  • The share of net irrigated area accounts for about 49 per cent of the total net sown area in the country and out of the net irrigated area, about 40 per cent is irrigated through canal systems and 60 per cent through groundwater.
  • The overall stage of ground water development (ratio of annual ground water draft and net annual ground water availability) in the country is 63 per cent.
  • This ratio signifies the rate of extraction of ground water, and it is more than 100 per cent in the states of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.

Agriculture Marketing

  • APMCs have been recognized as one of the eligible entities under Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) to further strengthen the infrastructure in APMC mandis.
  • The Government has launched a Central Sector Scheme of “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs till 2027-28.

Sweet Revolution

  • Government approved the allocation of Rs. 500 crore for National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM) for three years (2020-21 to 2022-23) as a part of the ANB scheme. It aims for the overall promotion & development of scientific beekeeping in thecountry to achieve the goal of ‘Sweet Revolution’.

Situation Assessment Survey

  • Average monthly income per agricultural household works out to be Rs. 10218 as compared to Rs. 6426 as per the last SAS Report of 2014.
  • The average size of household ownership holdings has declined from 0.725 hectare in 2003 to 0.592 hectare in 2013 and further to 0.512 hectare in 2019.

Animal Husbandry and Dairying

  • Allied sectors including animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries are steadily emerging to be high growth sectors and major drivers of overall growth in agriculture sector.
  • The Livestock sector has grown at a CAGR of 8.15% over the last five years ending 2019-20. It has been a stable source of income across groups of agricultural households accounting for about 15% of their average monthly income.
  • India is ranked 1st in milk production contributing 23 per cent of global milk production at 209.96 million tonnes in 2020-21 from 146.31 million tonnes in 2014-15.
  • The all India per capita availability of milk is 427 grams per day in 2020-21.

Eggs and Meat

  • India ranks 3rd in Egg Production and 8th in meat production in the world. Egg production in the country has increased from 78.48 billion in 2014-15 to 122.11 billion Nos. in 2020-21 (Provisional).
  • The per capita availability of egg is at 91 eggs per annum in 2020-21 (Provisional).

Fisheries

  • Fisheries sector has demonstrated an outstanding double-digitaverage annual growth of 10.87 per cent since 2014-15 with record fish production of 145 lakhtons in FY 2020-21 (Provisional).

Food Processing

  • During the last five years ending 2019-20, Food Processing Industries (FPI) sector has been growing at an average annual growth rate of around 11.18 per cent.

Allocating Foodgrains

  • During the year 2021-22, about 437.37 LMT of foodgrains have been allocated free of cost under PMGKAY scheme to around 80 crore NFSA beneficiaries.
  • The validity of One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme has been extended to 31.03.2023 from the existing 31.03.2022.
  • Government has also approved an action plan/road map for construction of steel silos in the country in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for modernizing storage infrastructure and improving shelf life of stored foodgrains.

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