India: How Agriculture Shows Way for Economic Recovery Post-COVID-19
MART, a New Delhi, India-based leading management consulting firm recently organized a webinar, “Unlocking Economic Recovery – Agriculture Shows the Way,” reports Rural Marketing. The webinar was attended by over 300 participants from corporates, media, farmers, academia, consulting firms, and NGOs.
Moderating the webinar, Pradeep Kashyap, Founde of MART, said, “India is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses, and jute, and ranks as the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, groundnut, vegetables, fruit, and cotton. Additionally, India is the world’s highest producer of tractors. The agriculture sector is the only bright spot at this moment which witnessed an impressive growth of 5.9% in Q4 of FY20 on the back of better Rabi harvest despite nation-wide lockdown due to the COVID-19 crisis. The Indian economy grew only by 3.1% during the same period due to the contraction of core sectors. Also, the recent forecast by Crisil shows agriculture will still depict positive growth of 2.5%, when GDP may register negative growth.”
“The total foodgrain production was estimated at 298 million tonnes, in 2019-20 which is 13 million tonnes higher than last year. Over the last four years 2016 to 2019, the FCI (Food Corporation of India) stocks for foodgrains were highest in 2019. Now when the other two pillars, manufacturing and services, of the economy have been severely impacted during COVID-19 crisis, it is very crucial to understand what role agriculture, the oldest and strongest pillar, is going to play for unfolding economic recovery and shaping up the future path,” Kashyap added.
Widely recognized as father of India’s rural marketing, Kashyap, highlighted, “Now the million-dollar question is: whether agriculture will emerge as the savior for our economy post-COVID-19 pandemic? In order to find answers to this question, MART conducted a Pan India survey with 430 farmers across the country to understand impact of COVID-19 on agriculture and future growth prospects in the wake of revolutionary agri reforms announced by the government.”
Continue reading at Rural Marketing.
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