Indian Agriculture

• Share of Agriculture in National Income: 22% (which was 55.4% in 1951); In USA this percentage is only 3%, while in UK only 2%.
• Total Population of India: 102.7 crore (2001); Rural Population of India: 74.2 crore i.e. 72% of total population; Total working population of India: 40.2 crore; out of which 12.8 crore (i.e. 32%) are cultivators, 10.7 crore (i.e. 27%) are agricultural labourers…means 59% people still depend on the land for the work. In UK & USA, only 2% of population is engaged in agriculture.
• Agriculture contributes almost 70% of our exports, but only 14.7% of total export earnings.
• Here’s a comparison of actual yield of crops per hectare in India compared to country achieving highest yield per hectare of that crop:
  •           Rice: India- 29.3; Egypt- 88.8
  •           Wheat: India- 25.8; UK- 80.5
  •           Maize: India- 16.7; Italy- 96.9
  •           Sugarcane: India- 680; Egypt- 1190
  •           Groundnut: India- 9.1; USA- 30.4
  •           Cotton: India- 2.3; Australia- 12.7
• Area of cultivated land per cultivator is meager 0.20 hectares (0.5 acres). While in USA, average agriculture land area per farmer is 1249 acres. Compare 0.5 acres with 1249 acres!
• Out of all crops, foodgrains are 75% & non-foodgrains 25%.
• From 1951 to 2002, foodgrains productions has increase from 51 million tonnes to 212 million tonnes.
• UP accounting for 20.5% cultivated area contributes for 21.4% of total production of foodgrains, while Punjab accounting for just 5.7% of total area contributes 10.8% of total foodgrains.
• Government spends Rs. 2,12,00,00,00,000 on food subsidy which constitutes around 5.17% of total government expenditure.  
• Rice, wheat, sugar, edible oil, kerosene are sold through Public Distribution System outlets…Out of this, sugar alone constitutes 35%, rice 27%, wheat 10%, kerosene 15%. Bajra, Jawar & other grains, which are largely consumed by poor people, constitute less than 1% of total PDS sales. Share of Pulse, main source of protein for the poor, is less than 0.2%.
• PDS purchases account for 68% in case of sugar, 51% for kerosene, 40% for rice & 31% for wheat in rural areas. Thus, non-poor are taking advantage of PDS purchase, especially in sugar & kerosene.
• 1/3^rd of the new-borns still weigh less than 2.5 kg at birth.
• Since independence, government has spent a whopping Rs. 2,31,40,00,00,00,000 on major, medium & minor irrigation works. Now India has ‘the largest’ irrigated area in entire world. But still irrigation is available only to 39% of total cropped area in India. Means remaining 61% area still depends upon rain. It is interesting to note that this 39% irrigated area however produces 60% of total foodgrains production. The rain-dependant 61% area produces the remaining 40% of foodgrains.
• According to Irrigation Commission, the cost of bringing the remaining area under irrigation would be Rs. 750000000000.
• Out of total irrigation, 31.5% comes from canal, 58% from wells & tube-wells, 4.7% from tanks & 5.1% from other sources.
• In total water use, the share of agriculture is 83%, domestic use only 4.5%, industrial use 2.7% and energy use 1.8%. (Remaining 8% for miscellaneous purposes including environmental requirements). 
• Consumption of fertilizers per hectare in India is around 90kgs; in South Korea 400kgs, Japan 340kgs etc.
• Government spends nearly Rs. 128000000000 on fertilizer subsidy.
• Use of fertilizers in India is in the range of 17.47 million tonnes. If cattle urine (which has valuable manorial properties) is mixed with cow dung, the available manure would be about 400 million tonnes. And that too when only 1/3^rd cow dung is used. (out of remaining 2/3^rd, 1/3^rd is never collected, 1/3^rd is used as fuel. So easily India can manage to produce around 1000 million tonnes of fertilizers natural way and that too free of cost.  

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