Basic Agriculture
(AG-1010A)
Ankit Singh Bhadauria
Assistant Professor
SAAST, CSJMU Kanpur
Agriculture: Scope & Importance
The word 'Agriculture' is derived from the Latin word 'Ager' means Land or
field and 'Culture' means cultivation. It means the science and Art of producing
crops and livestock for economic purpose. Agriculture is an art of raising plant life
from the soil for the use of mankind.
Agriculture can be defined as the art, the science, and business of cultivating crops
and livestock for economic purposes. At certain stages of human development,
agriculture used to be the only known means of living.
Agriculture is a broad term encompassing all aspects of crop production,
horticulture, livestock farming, forestry etc.
AGRICULTURE can be expanded as:
A – Activities on the
G – Ground for
R – Raising
I – Intended
C – Crops for
U – Uplifting
L – Livelihood
T – Through the
U – Use of
R – Rechargeable
E – Energies
Scope and Importance of Agriculture:
Agriculture is a production plant where the free gifts of nature such as land, water,
air, soil energy, etc. are used as inputs and then converted into a single primary
unit that is crop plants and their yield which are indispensable for human beings.
Those primary units are consumed by animals and are converted into secondary
units like milk, meat, eggs, wool, honey, silk, etc
1. Provides employment:
Agriculture has the contribution of 15% in the gross domestic product
(GDP) of the country. The agricultural sector also provides livelihood to
two-thirds of the population. The agricultural sector is responsible for the
employment of 60% of country’s workforce.
2. Significant contribution in country’s exports:
This sector accounts for about 15% of the total export earnings and provides
raw material to almost all the industries i.e. textiles, silk, rice, rubber, paper,
flour mills, milk products industries.
3. An important source of resource mobilization:
As the people in rural areas are not very rich, it proves as one of the biggest
markets for low-priced consumer goods.
4. Better Agriculture better is the Food Security of the country:
If the agricultural sector of a country is strong, it acts as-as a wall in
maintaining food security and in the process, national security as well.
5. Important allied sectors:
There are many allied sectors of agriculture like horticulture, silviculture,
poultry, dairy, and fisheries. They have a very important role in the
development the rural masses. So there is a need for the balanced
development of agriculture and allied sectors.
Salient Features of Indian Agriculture:
(a) Subsistence Agriculture: As mentioned earlier, most parts of India have
subsistence agriculture. This type of agriculture has been practiced in India
for seven hundreds of years and still prevails in a larger part of India in spite
of the large scale change in agricultural practices after independence.
(b) Pressure of population on Agriculture: Despite increase in
urbanization and industrialization, about 70% of population is still directly
or indirectly dependent on agriculture.
(c) Mechanization of farming: Green Revolution took place in India in the
late sixties and early seventies. After more than forty years of Green
Revolution and revolution in agricultural machinery and equipments,
complete mechanization is still a distant dream.
(d) Dependence upon monsoon: Since independence, there has been a
rapid expansion of irrigation infrastructure. Despite the large scale
expansion, only about one third of total cropped area is irrigated today. As a
consequence, two third of cropped areas is still dependent upon monsoon.
As you know, monsoon in India is uncertain and unreliable. This has
become even more unreliable due to change in climate.
(e) Variety of crops: Can you guess why India has a variety of crops? As
mentioned in the beginning of the lesson, Indian has diversity of topography,
climate and soil. Since India has both tropical and temperate climate, crop of
both the climate are found in India. There are very few countries in the
world that have variety comparable to that of India. You would realize that
when we would discuss the different type of crops in detail.
(f) Predominance of food crops: Since Indian agriculture has to feed a
large population, production of food crops is the first priority of the farmers
almost everywhere in the country. However, in recent years, there has been a
decline in the share of land used for food crops due to various other
commercially most advantageous uses of this land.
(g) Seasonal patterns: India has three distinct agricultural/cropping seasons.
You might have heard about kharif, rabi and zaid. In India there are specific
crops grown in these three seasons. For example rice is a kharif crop
whereas wheat is a rabi crop.
