For the past decade as Indian industry went places, recording a hearty rate of growth, the story of Indian agriculture remained an also ran. Successive governments have put in plenty of effort but the results were still weak. This is surprising as in the same period except for 2008, the monsoon went through one of the longest periods of regular annual rainfall pattern. Despite this favourable initial condition, the rate of growth of the agriculture sector has been low.The one spoilsport in the agriculture story was of course the stagnant rate of public investment. The state, hamstrung by vastly competitive demands on its resources, initially and also by the realisation that public investments in irrigation and others were not yielding quick results, moved the money elsewhere.

But now, in the aftermath of the global meltdown, the consensus of informed opinion has switched to the view that consumption demand from rural India has been the great stabilizer for industry. The impetus for that rural consumption demand has to come from rising productivity in agriculture. In turn rising productivity can only come if adequate investment is made at all stages of agricultural operation. Not surprisingly the push for these improvements has come from one of the longest spells of rise in prices of food products?the persisting inflation in food that has just begun to soften. So we have a fortuitous combination of circumstances that, if harvested, can create huge value upgradation for the Indian agriculture sector and in turn for the entire economy. The components of these improvements are well known like seed technology, better management of post harvest operations like preservation of produce in warehouses and of agricultural marketing.

COVER STORY

• Challenges of a Rural Urban Continuum
• Harnessing the demographic dividend for agricultural rejuvenation
• Climate Change and Indian Agriculture
• Strengthening Small Farm Sector
• Three ideas to get Agriculture going

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Courtesy: Yojana.gov.in