Indian Economy (Green Revolution and Its Impact) by Sourabh Mishra

Model Answer

Question #1.‘Smart Farming’ is an emerging concept that is also being called as “Third Green Revolution”. Assess the statement laying due emphasis on merits of Artificial Intelligence and precision farming in agriculture.

Approach:

• Define smart farming and third green revolution (40 words)
• Explain how smart farming holds the key to future of agriculture (90 words)
• Discuss the role of artificial intelligence and precision farming in farming (80 words)
• Conclusion (40 words)

Hint:

"Smart farming" is an emerging concept that refers to managing farms using technologies like IoT, robotics, drones and AI to increase the quantity and quality of products while optimizing the human labor required by production. It represents the application of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into agriculture, leading to what can be called a Third Green Revolution. Smart farming is much more efficient than traditional methods.

Smart farming- the future of agriculture:

• Smart Farming can also provide great benefits in terms of environmental issues, for example, through more efficient use of water, or optimisation of treatments and inputs.
• IoT (Internet of Things) in agriculture involves sensors, drones and robots connected through internet which function automatically and semi automatically performing operations and gathering data aimed at increasing efficiency and predictability.
• With increasing demands and shortage of labour across the globe, agriculture automation and robots or commonly known as Agribots are starting to gain attention among farmers.
• Semi automatic robots with arms can detect weeds and spray pesticides in the affected plants, saving up the plants as well as over all pesticide costs.
• Drones equipped with sensors and cameras are used for imaging, mapping and surveying the farms. From the drone data, insights can be drawn regarding crop health, irrigation, spraying, planting, soil and field, plant counting and yield prediction.
• IoT based remote sensing utilizes sensors placed along the farms like weather stations for gathering data which is transmitted to analytical tool for analysis. The data collected by sensors in terms of humidity, temperature, moisture precipitation helps in determining the weather pattern in farms so that cultivation is done for suitable crops.
• The analysis of quality of soil helps in determining the nutrient value and drier areas of farms, soil drainage capacity or acidity, which allows to adjust the amount of water needed for irrigation and the opt most beneficial type of cultivation.

Merits of AI in the Agriculture and precision farming

• Supply Chain: Worldwide, agriculture is a $5 trillion industry, and AI technologies can help to yield healthier crops, control pests, monitor soil and growing conditions, organize data for farmers, help with the workload, and improve a wide range of agriculture-related tasks in the entire food supply chain.
• Opportunity for High Growth: Globally, AI applications in agriculture reached a valuation of nearly $ 1 billion in 2019 and this is estimated to grow to almost $8 billion by 2030, a nearly 25% growth. However, in this scenario, the Indian agri-tech market, presently valued at $204 million, has reached just 1% of its estimated potential of $ 24 billion.
• Huge Agricultural Data Resource: Due to the diversity of its soil types, climate and topography, India provides a great opportunity for the data scientists and AI experts to develop state of the art AI tools and solutions for agriculture. Indian farms and farmers provide vast and rich data to help create AI solutions for not just the country but the world at large. And this is one of the factors that make the opportunity for AI in Indian agriculture unparalleled.
• AI Helping Analyze Farm Data: Farms produce hundreds of thousands of data points on the ground daily. With the help of AI, farmers can now analyze a variety of things in real-time such as weather conditions, temperature, water usage or soil conditions collected from their farm to better inform their decisions. Farmers are also using AI to create seasonal forecasting models to improve agricultural accuracy and increase productivity.
• Precision Agriculture: Precision agriculture uses AI technology to aid in detecting diseases in plants, pests, and poor plant nutrition on farms.AIsensors can detect and target weeds and then decide which herbicides to apply within the right buffer zone. This helps to prevent over-application of herbicides and excessive toxins that find their way in our food. It would increase productivity by introducing precision agriculture.
• Tackling the Labour Challenge: With fewer people entering the farming profession, most farms are facing the challenge of a workforce shortage. One solution to help with this shortage of workers is AI agriculture bots. These bots augment the human labour workforce and are used in various forms. For example: These bots can harvest crops at a higher volume and faster pace than human labourers, more accurately identify and eliminate weeds, and reduce costs for farms by having around the clock labour force.
• Additionally, farmers are beginning to turn to chatbots for assistance. Chatbots help answer a variety of questions and provide advice and recommendations on specific farm problems.

Conclusion

• Currently, government’s app, KisanSuvidha, provides farmers information on current weather, market price, dealer info, plant protection, and more. The app also shares market prices of commodities at the nearest location and the maximum price in the State and India. There is also ISRO’s Geo-platform, Bhuvan, which provides valuable data on the plantation, pest surveillance and weather.
• Innovative financial arrangements and micro-loans might be required to increase the adoption of technology in agriculture, which is currently absent. Agri-tech start-ups, by analysing various data, can help farmers get crop insurance and institutional credit. With the right framework and roadmap in place, it is likely that smart Farming will enable Indian farmers to produce more and better with less, and thereby earn more and enhance their standard of living.

Question #2. The composition of Indian Agriculture is not balanced and skewed towards food grains. Elaborate. What are the strategies adopted by the government to bring a balance to this composition? 

Approach

• Introduce with the share of agriculture in GDP (40 words)
• Explain what constitute Indian agriculture sector, the composition and the problems identified (90 words)
• Explain the strategies to bring balance to the sector (80 words)
• Conclude (40 words)

Hints:

The agriculture sector in India has undergone significant structural changes in the form of a decrease in share of GDP from 30 percent in 1990-91 to 17.8 percent in 2019-20. This decrease in agriculture’s contribution to GDP has not been accompanied by a matching reduction in the share of agriculture in employment. About 52% of the total workforce is still employed by the farm sector which makes more than half of the Indian population dependent on agriculture for sustenance.

How Indian Agriculture is skewed towards food grains?

• Since 2000, there has been strong progress in the agricultural sector (which includes crops, livestock, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries); overall agricultural growth has averaged 4 percent a year.
• This is partly due to market-based incentives such as higher prices for crops and partly because of diversification of the primary sector towards horticulture and animal husbandry. Among crops, share of edible oil and pulses has improved, while that of millets has fallen, despite a huge demand from livestock and animal husbandry sector.
• Apart from the food grain sector all the other sectors of India require further impetus and growth as there is a lot of potential, and some of these sectors are complementary.
• Growth of livestock and animal husbandry increases the demand of millets and pushes their price upwards, and since these grow particularly in arid regions of India, their growth can significantly boost the second green revolution.
• Similarly despite huge growth, the dairy sector of India can further grow, as per capita milk availability and cattle/milk production ratio is still not at par with the rest of world and thus the further growth should be technology (selective breeding and bio-technology oriented) led to improve productivity.
• Similarly despite significant growth, the oil-seed production and pulses is not yet able to meet the domestic demand.

Strategies by the government to bring a balance

• Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme is being implemented w.e.f. 2014-15 for holistic growth of the horticulture sector covering fruits, vegetables, root and tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew, cocoa. MIDH subsumed ongoing missions/schemes of the Ministry- National Horticulture Mission (NHM), Horticulture Mission for North East & Himalayan States (HMNEH), National Horticulture Board (NHB), Coconut Development Board (CDB) and Central Institute for Horticulture (CIH), Nagaland. All States including North Eastern States and UTs are covered under MIDH.
• The Pradhan MantriMatsyaSampadaYojana (PMMSY) is a flagship scheme for focused and sustainable development of fisheries sector in the country with an estimated investment of Rs. 20,050 crores for its implementation during a period of 5 years from FY 2020-21 to FY 2024-25 in all States/Union Territories, as a part of AatmaNirbhar Bharat Package. The investment of Rs. 20,050 crores under PMMSY is the highest ever in the fisheries sector. Out of this, an investment of about Rs 12340 crores is proposed for beneficiary-oriented activities in Marine, Inland fisheries and Aquaculture and about Rs 7710 crores investment for Fisheries Infrastructure.
• Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund has been set up with a corpus of Rs. 8,004 crore with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to provide subsidized loan @6.5% to capital stressed milk cooperatives for primarily replacing their decades old chilling and processing plants and addition of value added product plants
• The Central government launched the Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millet Promotion (INSIMP) in 2011-12 to promote millets as “nutri-cereals”. The scheme aims to catalyse increased production of millets in the country. In doing so, it aims to enhance India's nutritional security.

Conclusion

The cropping pattern is dependent on various factors viz. agro-climatic conditions of the region, availability of resources, market forces, socio-economic conditions of the farmers, demand and supply of agricultural produce etc. Accordingly, the Government of India has been emphasizing promotion of various crops/cropping systems viz. cereals, pulses, coarse cereals, nutricereals& commercial crops under National Food Security Mission (NFSM), oilseeds under NFSM-Oilseeds, horticultural crops under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH). The new technologies on crops/cropping pattern are demonstrated at the farmers’ field through State Department of Agriculture/ Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)/State Agricultural Universities (SAUs)/KrishiVigyanKendras (KVKs) etc. and are creating awareness among farmers to choose appropriate crops which are climate resilient, trade specific and geographically sound.