|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
Economic Survey ’13-’14 released; Sharp decline in agri’s share in GDP
|
|
Thursday, 10 July, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
|
|
Our Bureau, New Delhi
|
|
fiogf49gjkf0d The Economic Survey 2013-14, which was released in New Delhi, highlighted several challenges and reforms required in the agriculture sector. It stated that as a concomitant of growth, the share of the agricultural and allied sector in India’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined to 15.2 per cent during the Eleventh Plan, and further to 13.9 per cent in 2013-14 (provisional estimates [PE]).
While it still accounts for about 54.6 per cent of the total employment (Census 2011), there has been a decline in the absolute number of cultivators, which is unprecedented, from 127.3 million (Census 2001) to 118.7 million (Census 2011).
According to the survey, the growth rates of productivity in the agricultural sector were far below global standards; productivity levels of rice and wheat have declined after the Green Revolution of the 1980s. Another issue is soil degradation due to declining fertiliser-use efficiency.
Also, the food subsidy has increased substantially in the past few years. Food subsidy was Rs 92,000 crore in 2013-14.
With 60 per cent of the total foodgrains and oilseeds produced being grown in the kharif season, and with just about 35 per cent of the arable area being irrigated, Indian agriculture is still dependent on rainfall.
The second long-range forcast for the current year by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for the monsoon season indicates that the monsoon rainfall is likely to be 93 per cent of the LPA (model error ± 4 per cent), with 71 per cent probability of subnormal/deficit rainfall and 70 per cent occurrence of El Nino. The government has put in place contingency measures in about 500 districts.
Currently, India is in an anomalous situation of being largely self-sufficient, with large stocks of foodgrains on the one hand, and registering high food inflation on the other.
On domestic and international marketing, the plethora of government interventions that were used to build a marketing set up have actually served as barriers to trade. Removing market distortions would create greater competition in markets, promote efficiency and growth and facilitate the creation of a national agricultural market.
To establish a national common market, the Economic Survey has recommended the following reforms:
- The Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act, the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, the Land Tenancy Act, and any such legally-created structures whose provisions are restrictive and create barriers to free trade must be examined;
- Alternate marketing initiatives, like direct marketing and contract farming must be pursued rigorously;
- The inclusion of agriculture-related taxes in the general goods and services tax (GST) must be examined;
- A stable trade policy based on tariff interventions instead of non-tariff trade barriers should be established;
- Competition in the agro-processing sector. Incentivize the private sector to scale up investments must be developed and initiated, and
- In this scenario of bumper production and stocks, a paradigm shift in the role of the government in all aspects of foodgrain production and distribution is necessary
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|