INDIAN AGRICULTURE – AN

INTRODUCTION

Submitted to

Fourth Session of the Technical Committee of APCAEM

10-12 February 2009, Chiang Rai, Thailand

By

MM Pandey

Director

Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering

Bhopal, India

1

Indian Agriculture – an introduction

Agriculture has been the backbone of the Indian economy and it will continue to remain so for a long time. It has to support almost 17 per cent of world population from 2.3 per cent of world geographical area and 4.2 per cent of world’s water resources. The economic reforms, initiated in the country during the early 1990s, have put the economy on a higher growth trajectory. Annual growth rate in GDP has accelerated from below 6 percent during the initial years of reforms to more than 8 percent in recent years. This happened mainly due to rapid growth in non-agriculture sector. The workforce engaged in agriculture between 1980-81 and 2006-07 witnessed a very small decline; from 60.5 percent to 52 percent.

The present cropping intensity of 137 per cent has registered an increase of only 26 per cent since 1950-51. The net sown area is 142 Mha. The net irrigated area was 58.87 Mha in 2004-05. Presently, the total net irrigated area covers 45.5 per cent of the net sown area, the remaining 54.5 per cent is rainfed. The degradation of land and surface as well as ground water resources results in fast deterioration of soil health. Losses due to biotic (insect-pests, diseases, weeds) and abiotic (drought, salinity, heat, cold, etc.) stresses account for about one-fourth of the value of agricultural produce. The storage, transportation, processing, value addition and marketing of farm produce need to be improved to enhance household food, nutrition and livelihood security.

Indian agriculture is characterized by agro-ecological diversities in soil, rainfall, temperature, and cropping system. Besides favorable solar energy, the country receives about 3 trillion m³ of rainwater, 14 major, 44 medium and 55 minor rivers share about 83 per cent of the drainage basin. About 210 billion m³ water is estimated to be available as ground water. Irrigation water is becoming a scarce commodity. Thus proper harvesting and efficient utilization of water is of great importance.

Intensive cultivation as a result of introduction of high yielding varieties in the mid 1960's required higher energy inputs and better management practices. Land preparation, harvesting, threshing and irrigation are the operations, which utilize most of the energy used in agriculture. The share of animate power in agriculture decreased from 92 per cent in 1950-51 to 20 per cent in 2000-01. For desired cropping intensity with timeliness in field operations, animate energy sources alone were no longer adequate. Farmers opted for mechanical power sources to supplement animate power.

Average size of farm holdings gradually reduced from 2.58 ha to 1.57 ha (Table 1). Small and marginal farmers have limited resources especially in rain-fed regions where only animate power is used resulting in low productivity. Though agricultural production is high, the per hectare productivity is much lower than world average. There is an urgent need to increase productivity.

*        Country report presented in the Fourth Session of the Technical Committee of APCAEM, held during 1-3 December, 2008 at Chiang Rai, Thailand.

**    Director, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, India.

2

Smaller the farm, greater is the need for marketable surplus, so that small farmers can have a reasonable income. Achieving this goal will be possible only if we develop and disseminate eco-technologies rooted in the principles of ecology, economics, gender equity and employment generation. This is the pathway to an “ever-green revolution” in agriculture. The estimated food requirement in India and total production of major crops indicate that to keep pace with the present population growth and consumption pattern, food grain requirement has been estimated to be 240 MT by 2020 and 300 MT by 2025. Annual agricultural growth should be maintained at 6.7 per cent to meet these demand projections.

Table -1 Number and area of operational holdings by type of holding

Major size	Number, ‘000				Area, ‘000 ha
classes
	1981	1990-91		2000-	1980-81	1990-	2000-
				01		01	01
Marginal, <1 ha	50.122	63.389		76122	19,735	24,894	30088
	(56.4)	(59.4)		(63.0	(12.0)	(15.0)	(18.82)
Small, 1-2 ha	16,072	20,092		22814	23,169	28.827	32260
	(18.1)	(18.8)		(18.9)	(14.2)	(17.4)	(20.18)
Semi-medium, 2-4	12,455	(13,923		14087	34,645	38,375	38305
ha	(14.0)	(13.1)		(11.7)	(21.2)	(23.2)	(23.96)
Medium, 4-10 ha	8,068	7,580		6568	48,470	44,752	38125
	(9.1)	(7.1)		(5.4)	(29.6)	(27.1)	(23.84
Large, >10 ha	2,166	1,654)		1230	37,705	28,659	21124
	(2.4)	(1.6)		(1.02)	(23.0)	(17.3)	(13.21)
All size classes	88,883	1,06,637		120822	1,63,72	1,65,50	159903
	(100)	(100)		(100)	4	7	(100)
					(100)	(100)

Note : Figures within parentheses indicate per cent contribution

Non-availability of manpower during peak crop season is many times a problem. The overall achievement in the creation of irrigation facilities has been relatively better in India with 63 per cent growth rate compared to the world average. There is a need to increase the utilization of rainwater to enhance the gross cropped area by 30 Mha as the yield of food grain in irrigated areas is almost twice that in rain-fed agriculture. Per capita availability of food grains has declined from 510 g per day in 1990 to 436 g in 2003 and this trend has to be arrested. The infrastructure for agricultural diversification, reducing post harvest losses of perishables, value addition to agro-produce and branding system needs to be strengthened.

Agricultural Production and Productivity

The nation is striving to find ways and means to keep its burgeoning population adequately fed. On the one hand it is facing the problem of declining productivity and on the other, challenges posed by liberalization. In such a scenario, leveraging the available natural resources and existing infrastructure is the only way to make the ends meet. Management of the already built infrastructure in harmony with natural systems is the clarion call of the day. Knowledge of the extent of existing infrastructure and natural resources is one of the most basic pre-requisites to utilize them effectively and in a sustainable manner. The discipline of agricultural engineering endeavours to develop technologies for enhancing productivity and

3

reducing the cost of cultivation. Traditionally animate power was used for field operations and processing activities. As a result of introduction of mechanical power, agricultural engineering activities have expanded considerably. To sustain the project population of 1.363 billion by 2025 the productivity has to be increased by 100 per cent from the present level by intensification of agriculture. It is estimated that the energy input to agriculture would have to be increased form the present level of 1.3 to 2.4kW/ha.

The constraints of low productivity in agriculture were realized and thus, central and state governments emphasized the need for accelerated development of agriculture. Adoption of high yielding varieties by farmers coupled with the use of higher doses of fertilizer and assured irrigation through tube wells accelerated the pace of progress in agriculture. As a result of adoption of improved inputs and management practices, the total food grain production increased from a mere 50.8 million tonnes in 1950-51, to 212 million tonnes in 2006-07 and productivity increased from 522 kg/ha to more than 1707 kg/ha (Table 2). The productivity of wheat, rice and oilseeds increased to a greater extent than other crops. The increase in production of food grain was possible as a result of adoption of quality seeds, higher dose of fertilizer and plant protection chemicals, coupled with assured irrigation. The growth in production of fruits (46 million tonnes), vegetables (91 million tonnes), milk (81 million tonnes), fish (57 million tonnes) has also increased. As a result, not only the country has achieved self-sufficiency in foods but have adequate agro-produce for export. Our agriculture is now at the crossroads (Table 3). The use of certified/quality seeds by the farmers has increased to 700,000 tonnes. The fertilizer consumption has increased to 21.65 million tonnes (more than 112.69 kg/ha) in 2006-07 from 0.29 million tonnes in 1960-61. It increased at an annual growth of 11.7 per cent. The use of technical grade plant protection chemicals has increased to 56.11 thousand tonnes (0.4 kg/ha) from a meagre of 8.62 thousand tonnes in 1960-61.

Crop and site specific agricultural mechanization and agro-based small and medium enterprises in rural sector using a proper blend of conventional and renewable energy sources will facilitate in enhancing agricultural productivity and profitability resulting in higher income for farmers and better quality of life.

Table 2 Production and productivity in agriculture

(Area: million ha, Production & Consumption: million tonnes, Yield: kg/ha)

Crop		2000-	2001-	2002-	2003-	2004-	2005-	2006-07
		01	02	03	04	05	06	(Provisional)
All food	Area	121.05	122.78	113.86	123.45	120.00	121.60	124.07
grains	Production	196.81	212.85	174.77	213.19	198.36	208.60	211.78
	Yield	1626	1734	1535	1727	1652	1715	1707
Rice	Production	84.98	93.34	71.82	88.53	83.13	91.79	91.05
	Yield	1901	2079	1744	2077	1984	2102	2084
Wheat	Production	69.68	72.77	65.76	72.16	68.64	69.35	73.70
	Yield	2708	2762	2610	2713	2602	2619	2617

4

Crop		2000-	2001-	2002-	2003-	2004-	2005-	2006-07
		01	02	03	04	05	06	(Provisional)
Oilseeds	Production	18.44	20.66	14.84	25.29	26.10	27.98	23.26
	Yield	810	913	691	1067	967	1004	895
Sugarcane	Production	295.96	297.21	287.38	237.31	232.32	281.17	322.94
	Yield	68577	67370	63576	58986	63806	66828	66833
Pulses	Production	11.08	13.37	11.13	14.91	13.13	13.39	14.11
	Yield	544	607	543	635	577	598	594
Coarse	Production	31.08	33.38	26.07	37.60	33.47	34.07	32.92
cereals	Yield	1027	1131	966	1221	1153	1172	1158
Milk MT	Production	80.60	84.40	86.20	88.1	92.6	97.1	100..9
Fish	Production	5.66	5.96	6.20	6.40	6.30	6.57	6.87
Irrigated area, Mha		75.95	78.81	75.87*	77.94*	78.00*	80.00*	82.63*
Fertiliser		13.88	17.36	16.09	16.80	18.34	20.34	21.65
consumption MT
Per capita availability		495.50	416.20	494.10	437.6	462.7	422.4*	445..3
of food grains
(gms/day)

5

Table 3 Global ranking of India in farm production and productivity

Crop	Production rank	Productivity rank
Paddy	2nd	30th
Wheat	2nd	22nd
Maize	7th	35th
Total cereals	3rd	36th
Groundnut	2nd	40th
Rapeseeds	3rd	28th
Pulses	1st	44th
Potato	4th	26th
Fruits	2nd (10 per cent	-
	share)
Vegetables	2nd (9 per cent	-
	share)

Farm mechanization

Mechanization is viewed as package of technology to (i) ensure timely field operations to increase productivity, reduce crop losses and improve quality of agro-produce (ii) increase land utilization and input use efficiency (iii) increase labour productivity using labour saving and drudgery reducing devices besides, being cost effective and eco-friendly. Appropriate machinery have been adapted by farmers for ensuring timely field operations and effective application of various crop production inputs utilizing human, animal and mechanical power sources. Diverse farm mechanization scenario prevails in the country due to size of farm holdings (average farm holding size 1.6 ha) and socio-economic disparities. Indian agriculture continues to be dependent upon human (agricultural workers population 234.10million in 2000-

1)        and draught animal power (27 million pairs). Hand tools and animal drawn implements are extensively used which involve a great amount of drudgery. Adoption of tractors has been on the increase. Sale of tractors during 2005-06 touched 292000 nos.

Mechanization indicator is one of the measures of modernization of agriculture of a country (Table 4). The availability of farm power or energy per unit area (kW/ha) has been considered as one of the parameters for expressing level of mechanization. Ratio of machine work and sum of manual and machine work has also been considered to estimate the level of mechanization. The unit farm power available from all sources (animate and mechanical power) increased from 0.20 to 0.90 kW/ha (on the basis of net cropped area) from 1950-51 to 1996-97. The ratio of tractive power to total farm power has increased from 0.82 to 32.25 per cent.

Table 4	Level of mechanization
Sl. No.	Operation	Percentage
1	Tillage	40.2
	Tractor	15.6
	Animal	24.7
2	Sowing with drills and planters	28.9
	Tractors	8.3
	Animal	20.6

6

3	Irrigation	37
4	Thresher- Wheat	47.8
	Paddy and others	4.4
5	Harvesting
	Reapers	0.56
	Combines	0.37
6	Plant protection	34.2

A number of machines and equipment suitable for different farm operations suited to different agro-climatic regions and categories of farm have been developed and tested (Table-5). Most of these machines are available commercially and have been well adopted.

Table 5 Present Status of mechanization in Farm Mechanization

Technology					Present Status
Land Development
Land	levelling		and		Bull  dozers,  power  rakes,  land  planes  etc.  are
grading					commercially available.  Animal drawn and	tractor
					levellers are available for wetland and laser land leveller
					for large scale levelling.
Summer	ploughing		and		Tractor drawn mould board ploughs, disc plough and
subsoiling					subsoilers, para plough are available commercially.
Seedbed	preparation			-	T/M strip till drill, roto till drill and zero till seed cum
conservation		tillage			fertilizer drill field, till planter tested in light soils of
seeding	raised		bed		northern India and found useful for sowing of wheat.
planting
Seedbed	preparation			-	Tractor mounted mould board, disc ploughs, disc
Flat bed					harrows, cultivator etc are available commercially and
					being used by the farmers. Adoption of T/m rotavator is
					increasing.
Seedbed	preparation			-	Good designs of A/d and T/d puddlers, levellers, hydro
low land					tiller and rotavator are available commercially.
Pit making					Tractor mounted augers were imported and tested. Few
					indigenous designs of tractor and power tiller mounted
					augers were developed and commercialized.
Manure application					Manual spreading and transportation through tractor is
					practised. Power tiller and tractor-operated designs are
					ready for commercialization.
Sowing and Planting
Drilling					Animal  draw,  Tractor  mounted  and  Power  tiller
					operated seed drills, seed cum fertilizer drill	are
					available
Planting/hill planting/					Dibblers, inclined plate planters and pneumatic plate
Precision drill					planters are available
Planting	of	tubers	and		Potato planters of animal, tractor and power tiller
rhizomes					mounted are available.
Weeding and Interculture
Manual	weeding		and		Tools are available commercially; grubber, twin wheel
earthing					hoe, cono weeder are common on Indian farms.

7

Technology

Present Status

Power weeders

Developed and tested.

Rotary power weeder has been

adopted in different agro-climatic regions.

Power

tiller

operated

Developed and tested.

Power tiller mounted cultivator,

cultivation and earthing

power tiller mounted earthing cum fertilizer is under

promotion in sugarcane crop.

Tractor

mounted

Commercially available

cultivator and earthing

Plant Protection

Manual sprayers

Commercially available on large scale

Manual dusters

Animal

operated

Few commercial models are available.

Bullock drawn

sprayers

sprayer for soybean and cotton is being promoted.

Engine

operated

Many models are available

sprayers and dusters

Self

propelled

sprayers

High capacity sprayers are commercially available.

and dusters

Power

tiller

operated

Few

models

developed

by

R&D

Centres.

sprayers and dusters

Commercialised in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and

Maharasthra. Power tiller operated orchard sprayer with

turbo nozzle has been commercialised.

Tractor

mounted

Commercially

available.  Few

imported models field-

sprayers and dusters

tested and adopted by farmers. Aeroblast sprayers are in

use for horticultural crops.

Air

assisted

spraying

Manual and tractor mounted equipment have been

and dusting

developed/adopted

Harvesting & Threshing

Manual sickles

Locally made available at large scale.

With serrations

many designs are available for commercialization

Reaper-windrowers

Walk behind type models were designed, developed,

Walking type

tested and commercialised

Riding type

Prototypes available

Power tiller mounted

A platform type reaper made and tested

Tractor mounted

A number of models are being manufactured on large

scale.  Now again its scope is increasing due to the

requirement of wheat and rice straw for fodder pin poses.

Groundnut diggers

Animal drawn, power tiller mounted and tractor mounted

diggers are available.

Potato

diggers/sweet

Animal drawn, Tractor mounted semi and automatic

potato harvesters

potato diggers developed and tested.

Power tiller

mounted potato digger is available.

Power threshers

Commercially available. Threshers for sunflower, maize,

Specialized threshers

groundnut, castor etc. have been developed.

Multicrop thresher

Small and high capacity threshers developed and tested

for rice, wheat, mustard, sunflower, safflower, sorghum,

maize, pigeon-pea etc.

Combine harvesters - Commercially available rice

8

Technology				Present Status
General	purpose	grain		Commercially available
combine
Straw combine				Commercially available for wheat
Plot combine				Limited scope. Imported models are available
Noise and Vibration on				Studies have been carried out which indicate that
tractors	and	power		operators of these power units are exposed to high level
tillers				of noise and vibration, which are detrimental to health
				and work performance.

Modernization requires sophistication in mechanization, which is possible at relatively large scales of operations with capital and management constraints overcome. Marginal and small farmers are increasingly becoming part time, with absentee farmers, periurban farmers, wage earners on a part or full time basis. Industry and service sectors, trade and commerce unable to reduce land based livelihoods compel rural people to remain on land based livelihoods, forcing a steady increase in the number of land holdings but with average land holdings going down making mechanization more challenging and difficult. Scaling down of farm machines reduces mechanical advantages. Instead of owning farm machinery other than hand tools, such marginal farms can meet their needs through custom servicing. (if it is well developed).

Farm Power Availability

India has made remarkable progress in agricultural mechanization technology. The country evolved a selective mechanization model using a power mix based on animate and inanimate power sources. The mix of power sources includes human beings, animals, power tillers, tractors, engines and electric motors. One of the globally used Index of Agriculture Mechanization (IAM) is power availability per unit area. The power availability is computed by taking both animals and inanimate power sources. Nearly 80 per cent of the power in agriculture is contributed by inanimate power sources. Table 6 shows the farm power availability and density of different power sources in India. Table 8 shows the farm power availability versus food grain production. It is apparent from these tables that agricultural productivity is directly related to farm power availability. States with higher power per unit area also have higher food production (Table 7). It is evident that higher power availability will have to be ensured in the states with lower power availability. This is also true for rainfed areas, where the power availability is barely 0.54 kW./ha. The power availability in hilly areas is also quite low.

The increasing use of tractors and irrigation pumps operated by electric motors and diesel engines are the indictors of the fact that use of mechanical power in India has increased many fold during the last two decades. Power availability was 0.32 kW/ha in 1965-66 and increased to 1.34 kW/ha in 2005-06 and needs to be increased to 2 kW/ha. The cultivable area per tractor was 2162 ha in 1965-66 and has come down to about 50 ha per tractor in 2005-06 with the addition of a large number of tractors. However, it is seen that the most popular model of tractor has a rating of 35 hp, which has a command area of about 15-20 ha.

9

Table 6	Status of farm power sources in India
Sources	Unit	1960-	1970-	1980-	1990-	2000-	2004-
		61	71	81	91	01	05
Agricultural	Number,	116.0	124.2	149.3	183.5	214.9	227.7
workers	million
	Power,	5.8	6.2	7.5	9.2	10.7	11.4
	mkW
Draft	Number,	80.4	82.6	73.4	70.9	60.3	56.5
animals	million
	Power,	30.6	31.4	27.8	26.9	22.9	21.5
	mkW
Tractors	Number,	0.037	0.168	0.531	1.192	2.472	2.812
	million
	Power,	1.00	4.38	13.86	31.11	64.52	73.39
	mkW
Power	Number,	0	0.096	0.0162	0.0312	0.0775	0.0783
tillers	million
	Power,	0	0.054	0.0196	0.175	0.434	0.438
	mkW
Diesel	Number,	0.230	1.700	2.880	4.800	6.226	7.595
engines	million
	Power,	1.298	9.52	16.13	26.88	34.86	42.53
	mkW
Electric	Number,	0.200	1.600	3.350	8.070	13.250	14.467
motors	million
	Power,	0.74	5.92	12.39	29.86	49.03	53.53
	mkW

1 Human = 0.05 kW, Draught animal pair = 0.38 kW, Power tiller = 5.6 kW; Tractor = 26.1 kW, Electric motor = 3.7 kW, Diesel engine = 5.6 kW.

Table	7 Cultivated area, production and power availability in India.
Year		Croppi	Net	Gross	Irriga	Producti	Net sown	Power
		ng	sown	sown	ted	vity	area per	availabil
		intensit	area	area	area	T/ha	tractor	ity,
		y	Mha	Mha	Mha		ha	kWha
		( per
		cent)
1980-		124	140.3	173.3	38.7	1.023	264	0.55
81
1985-		127	141.0	178.8	42.1	1.184	174	0.73
86
1990-		130	142.2	185.5	48.0	1.468	119	0.87
91
1995-		131	142.8	186.8	53.0	1.499	84	1.05
96
2000-		131.6	141.2	185.7	54.83	1.630	57	1.29
01
2004-		135.6	141.0	191.2	56.21	1.650	50	1.44
05

10

Table 8	Farm Power availability and average productivity of food grains in
India in 2001
State		Farm Power availability,	Food grain productivity,
		kW/ha	kg/ha
Punjab		3.50	4032
Haryana		2.25	3088
Uttar Pradesh		1.75	2105
Andhra Pradesh		1.60	1995
Uttranchal		1.60	1712
West Bengal		1.25	2217
Tamil Nadu		0.90	2262
Karnataka		0.90	1406
Kerala		0.80	2162
Assam		0.80	1443
Bihar		0.80	1622
Gujarat		0.80	1169
Madhya Pradesh		0.80	907
Himachal Pradesh		0.70	1500
Maharashtra		0.70	757
Rajasthan		0.65	884
Jharkhand		0.60	1095
Jammu	&	0.60	1050
Kashmir
Orissa		0.60	799
Chhattisgarh		0.60	799
All India		1.35	1723

Irrigation

Water is an essential natural resource for the survival of life, a key input for plant growth and is instrumental in the upkeep of the environment. Although water is a renewable source, it is quite dynamic and scarce. The source of all water is annual precipitation/rainfall and it is affected by a number of factors. As a result, rainfall in India is highly variable, irregular and undependable with widespread variation among various meteorological sub-divisions in terms of distribution and amount. The highest and lowest annual average rainfall in India is 10,000 mm (Khasi-Jaintia Hill, Meghalaya) and 100 mm in Rajasthan, respectively. The distribution of water is highly skewed and to make it better the technical feasibility of inter basin transfer of water by linking Himalayan and Peninsular rivers has been investigated and the proposal is under consideration of the Government of India. It is estimated that after the development of full irrigation potential of 140 million ha as against the cropped area of 200 million ha by the year 2010, about 60 million ha will be left as rainfed. It, therefore, demands that every drop of rainfall should be conserved and it can be done by in-situ and ex-situ harvesting of rainfall. Significant progress has been made in the development of water harvesting, conservation and utilization technology. For better water use efficiency, it is necessary to adapt efficient irrigation methods that are technically feasible, economically viable and socially acceptable. Drip and micro irrigation systems need to be adopted and popularized for row crops, horticulture and especially for widely spaced high value crops in undulating terrains, shallow and porous soils and in water scarce areas. However, the associated issues/problems of