Why Indian Agriculture Is Not on Permanent Decline

Posted by Matt Hopkins|9 August 2017

Observing and speculating agriculture and its economics in a nation like India can be misguiding at times, writes Prabodh Krishna on BusinessWorld.in. A key reason of selective players in world trade to malign image with the intents, termed unconvincing.

“From suicide to productivity ground reality is very much emotionally driven and this makes it vulnerable for misrepresentation,” says S. Ganeshan, chairman of international treaties and expert committees on the Indian Chemical Council.

Indian’s agriculture ranks second in the world agricultural production, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and yet there are continuous reports of agriculture being on permanent decline. Aspects can be more visible if we take a look at trend of agriculture production and its contribution to GDP.

Indian agricultural production has increased in past 11 years from $87 billion in financial year 2004-05 to $322 billion in financial year 2015-16. Contribution to GDP from agriculture is also 17% of entire GDP. Logically it still remains a strong contributor to national economy of India. Multiple effect of agriculture on economy also cannot be ruled out, making agriculture necessary for overall economic development.

Read the full story on BusinessWorld.in.