NEW DELHI: The country's farm sector is at "crossroads" despite growth in production, due to pressure of growing population, depleting resources, climate change and constraints in availability of cheaper technology, among other things, Minister of State for Agriculture Tariq Anwar said here today.
Even as considerable progress has been made in raising India's foodgrains output from 52 million tonnes in 1951-51 to a record 257.44 million tonnes in 2011-12, per capita consumption of most of the food items in the country is still lower than the desired level, he said.
"The agriculture sector has undergone a considerable change during the last two decades, but is atcrossroads today with the pressure of increasing population, rising income and prices, dietary changes, depleting natural resources, fragmented land holdings and non-availability of less costly technology, he said.
Anwar, who was addressing the International Agronomy Congress here, also expressed concern over the rising population putting pressure on farm land which he said was shrinking due to its use for non-agricultural purposes.
According to official data, the per capita availability of land has fallen from 0.91 hectare in 1951 to about 0.32 hectare in 2001 and it is expected to decline further to 0.09 hectare by 2050.
The Minister said climate change would have its effect on crops and milk/fish production. He said mitigation measures through systematic research are important to meet future challenges of food and livelihood security.
"More planned efforts are required on production and marketing fronts, in the coming years," he said. He said for meeting the desired farm growth, there was a need to achieve incremental productivity gains and technology diffusion across regions.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Agriculture Charandas Mahant said scientists should come up with solutions to address challenges of producing more with less resources.
The 3rd International Agronomy Congress organised jointly by Indian Agronomy Society and government research body ICAR will deliberate in the next four days on agricultural diversification, climate change management and ways to improve farm livelihood.
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