Indian Agriculture: An Overview

Contribution of agriculture and allied sector during 2008-2009 was about 17.1 percent in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India that is expected to increase to 20.1 percent in 2010-11. Importance of agriculture in India can be understood by the fact that 65-70 per cent of the population in India is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Growth in Indian economy always get affected by the monsoon as 55.7 percent of area sown in India is dependent on rainfall. If rainfall is normal, it results in good output of agriculture. In case of deficit rainfall, agriculture output is adversely affected that has its impact on growth of Indian economy.

According to the 4^th Advance Estimates on production of foodgrains

and commercial crops, the estimated production (in 2008-09) is shown in the Table given in the right side.

Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development

The value of output from livestock and fisheries sectors was about 30 per cent of value of output from total of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Fisheries sector. These sectors contributed
5.21 percent to the total GDP during 2007-08. India accounts for 57 per cent of the world’s buffalo population and 14 per cent of the cattle population. Production figures related to milk, egg and wool are given below.

• With 104.9 m t milk production in the year 2007-08, India continues to be the largest producer of milk in the world,
• India ranks among top three countries in the world with a poultry population of 489 m and egg production of 53.5 billion in 2007-08,
• India has availability of 42 eggs per person per annum as per the estimates of 2007-08,

• Broiler production has increased at a growth rate of 8 -10 percent per annum and present broiler production is about 2.2 million metric tonnes in 2007-08,

• 44.0 million kg of wool was produced during 2007-08,

• About 483478 M.T. Buffalo Meat and 8908.72 MT sheep/goat meat were exported during 2007-08,

Horticultural crops:

• 10 per cent of gross cropped area is occupied by horticultural crops

• India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables.

• Production of fruits and vegetables account 160.75 million tonnes (49.4 m. t. of fruits & 93.0 m. t. of vegetables).

• India's share in world fruit and vegetable production is 10 and 13.28 per cent respectively.

• tropical and sub-tropical fruits grown in India include Mango, banana, citrus, pineapple, papaya, guava, cheeku, jackfruit, litchi and grape,

• Temperate fruits grown in India are apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, almond and walnut

• Among the arid fruits, India grows aonla, ber, pomegranate, annona, fig and phalsa

• India occupies top place in the world in the production of mango, banana, cheeku and acid lime

• India leads in productivity of grapes per unit land area.

• India is the largest producer of mango, banana, cheeku and acid lime.

• About 39 per cent of world’s mango and 23 per cent of world’s banana is produced in the

country.

• India is next only to China in area and production of vegetables and occupies

prime position in the production of cauliflower, second in onion and third in cabbage
in the world.

• Floriculture is estimated to cover an area of 1.14 lakh ha. with a production of 6,70,000 MT of loose flowers and 13009.3 million cut flowers.

• India produces a wide variety of spices like black pepper, cardamom, ginger, garlic, turmeric, chilli and a large variety of tree and seed spices.

• The total production of spices was 4.3 million metric tonnes and the area covered

was 2.56 million hectares.

• India is the largest producer and consumer of cashew nuts. Total production of cashew is around 0.57 million tonnes

• India’s produced about 101 Metric Tonnes vanilla in 2004-05.

• India is the third largest producer of coconut and leads 90 coconut-producing countries of the world.

• It occupies top position in arecanut production.

• About 2000 native plant species have curative properties and 1300 species are known for their aroma and flavour.

• The Indian systems of medicines, popularly known as Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha drugs are of great demand in the country.

Source: Most of the information provided in this article is based on information provided in - INDIA 2010, A REFERENCE ANNUAL; Compiled and edited by RESEARCH, REFERENCE AND TRAINING DIVISION, PUBLICATIONS DIVISION, MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA