By IANS
New Delhi : A second green revolution is necessary, particularly in rain-fed areas, to provide sustainable incomes to the country’s distressed farmers, the Economic Survey for 2007-08 said.
“A second Green Revolution, particularly in the areas which are rain-fed, maybe necessary to improve the income of the persons dependent on the agriculture sector,” said the government’s annual economic report card.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday tabled the report in the Lok Sabha amid din from the opposition MPs demanding relief packages for farmers. Parliament has seen repeated disruptions over the farmers’ plight since the beginning of the budget session Monday.
The share of agriculture in gross domestic product (GDP) has sharply reduced to 18.5 percent in 2006-07 from 36.4 percent in 1982-83, though it continues to support over 500 million people, and provides employment to 52 percent of the country’s workforce.
The survey said the growth rate of food grain production decelerated to 1.2 percent in 1990-2007, lower than the annual growth of population pegged at 1.9 percent.
An official estimate says over 60 percent of the country’s cultivable area depends on rain for agriculture. In order to raise the productivity of rain-fed areas, the government in 2006 set up the National Rainfed Authority of India (NRAI).
According to the survey, the country reported an estimated food grain production of 217.3 million tonnes in 2006-07, missing the target by 2.7 million tonnes.
“In 2007-08, food grain production is expected to be 219.3 million tonnes against the target of 221.5 million tonnes.”
Use high-yielding varieties of seeds and increased use of fertilisers and irrigation led to the green revolution in India after 1965.
The programme, started with the help of US-based Rockefeller Foundation, was based on high-yielding varieties of wheat, rice and other grains that had been developed in Mexico and the Philippines.
Although major benefits of the green revolution were experienced in the north and northwest, the programme substantially increased production of food grains, mainly wheat and rice, catapulting the share of agriculture in GDP to 36.4 percent in 1982-83.
The tempo of food grain production growth could not be maintained, due to a decline in irrigated cultivable land and scarce rains.
“There has been a considerable decline in the growth rate of cultivable areas, productivity and the area irrigated for major crops like rice, wheat, pulses,” the survey said.
It added that in 1992-97, irrigated areas cultivating food grains registered a growth rate of 1.74 percent against 1.25 percent in 1989-2007, while only 72 percent of the country’s districts get normal rainfall annually.
“The pace of creating additional irrigation potential came down sharply from an average of about 3 percent annually in 1950-90 to 1.8 percent in 2002-07.”
The survey, however, sees a silver lining in the ongoing efforts under the government’s flagship Bharat Nirman programme to create irrigation potential in the country.
The survey said that around 3.62 million hectares of irrigation potential has been created in 2005-07.