Primary Sector: Agriculture | ICSE Class 9 Economics Notes

This note covers the meaning of agriculture and allied activities, how agriculture contributes to employment, industry, trade and food self-sufficiency, the main problems of Indian agriculture, the government measures that raise agricultural production, the Green Revolution and its positive impacts, and food security with the role of the Food Corporation of India.

What are agriculture and allied activities?

What does agriculture mean?

Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating the soil, raising crops and rearing livestock. It is also called farming. It covers growing crops, fruits, vegetables and flowers, and rearing animals.

Agriculture is a primary activity. The primary sector produces goods by directly using natural resources. Cotton, milk, minerals and ores are natural products. The sector is called primary because it forms the base for all other products that are made later.

Most natural products come from agriculture, dairy, fishing and forestry, so the primary sector is also called the agriculture and related sector. Growing cotton depends mainly, but not entirely, on natural factors such as rainfall, sunshine and climate.

The secondary sector changes natural products into other forms through manufacturing. The tertiary sector, also called the service sector, helps the primary and secondary sectors through activities such as transport, storage, communication, banking and trade.

What are allied activities?

Allied activities are activities linked to farming, such as livestock rearing, poultry, fisheries, horticulture and sericulture. Families in farming traditionally have sources of income beyond crops, and this variety builds resilience, although today this is proving inadequate to provide a decent quality of life to farmers.

Table: Main allied activities

Operation Flood is a system in which farmers pool their milk, which is graded by quality, processed and marketed to urban centres through cooperatives, societies whose members pool their resources. Milk production rose about twelve times between 1951 and 2021, mainly because of its successful implementation.

What types of farming and cropping seasons are found in India?

Farming in India varies from subsistence to commercial type. Subsistence farming meets the needs of the farmer's family. Commercial farming grows crops and rears animals for sale in the market.

Commercial farming uses higher doses of modern inputs such as high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, which are developed by scientific processes to give higher yields, together with chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides.

What are the types of farming?

Table: Types of farming in India

What are the cropping seasons?

Table: The three cropping seasons of India

How does agriculture contribute to employment?

How many people depend on agriculture?

Agriculture is the major source of livelihood in the rural sector. Two-thirds of India's population depends on agriculture, while the share of workers in the primary sector was 44 per cent in 2017-18, as the graph below shows.

Between 1950 and 1990 the contribution of agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the value of all final goods and services produced within a country during a particular year, declined significantly.

However, the population depending on agriculture fell only from 67.5 per cent in 1950 to 64.9 per cent by 1990.

Two stacked bars, each showing 100 per cent of workers: primary in blue at the bottom, secondary in red in the middle and tertiary in green at the top.

The printed labels for 1977-78 are 71 (primary), 11 (secondary) and 18 (tertiary), and for 2017-18 they are 44, 25 and 31.

Reference: NCERT Class 10 Economics, Chapter 2, Graph 3

Worked example 1: change in employment shares. The primary, secondary and tertiary sectors employed 71, 11 and 18 per cent of workers in 1977-78 and 44, 25 and 31 per cent in 2017-18.

Find the change in each share, in percentage points, the unit used when one percentage is subtracted from another.

Formula: Change in share = share in 2017-18 − share in 1977-78

Answer: Primary: 44 − 71 = −27 percentage points. Secondary: 25 − 11 = +14. Tertiary: 31 − 18 = +13. The primary sector lost 27 points, and the other two gained 14 + 13 = 27 between them.

The primary sector continues to be the largest employer. A shift in employment similar to the shift in output did not take place, because not enough jobs were created in the secondary and tertiary sectors.

What is underemployment in agriculture?

Underemployment is a situation in which people are apparently working but all of them work less than their potential. In agriculture it is hidden, unlike a person with no job who is clearly visible as unemployed, so it is also called disguised unemployment.

Laxmi, a small farmer, owns about two hectares of unirrigated land that depends only on rain and grows crops like jowar and arhar. A hectare is 10,000 square metres.

All five members of her family work the plot throughout the year because they have nowhere else to go. Each does some work but no one is fully employed.

If many people move to proper work elsewhere, production does not suffer and family income rises. In unirrigated tracts there is seasonal unemployment ranging from 4 to 8 months.

How can more work be created in rural areas?

• Irrigation: a well or canals let a farmer take a second crop in the rabi season, which gives more work in the family's own field.
• Cheap credit: a loan at a reasonable rate of interest lets a farmer buy seeds and equipment in time without paying a high rate to moneylenders.
• Industries in semi-rural areas: a dal mill, a cold storage or units that process farm produce give employment close to villages.

How does agriculture contribute to industry, trade and food self-sufficiency?

How is agriculture linked to industry?

Agriculture produces most of the food that people consume. It also produces raw material for various industries.

Table: Farm produce as industrial raw material

The sectors depend on each other. If farmers refused to sell sugarcane to a particular sugar mill, the mill would have to shut down. Farmers also buy tractors, pumpsets, electricity, pesticides and fertilisers. If the price of fertilisers or pumpsets rises, the cost of cultivation rises and profits fall.

How does agriculture contribute to trade?

Some agricultural products such as tea, coffee and spices are exported. Indian coffee is known in the world for its good quality, and the Arabica variety grown in the country is in great demand all over the world. In 2020 India was the second largest producer of tea after China.

How does agriculture help food self-sufficiency?

Self-sufficiency in food means meeting the country's own food requirements without depending on other nations. Low productivity forced India to import food from the United States of America. Two consecutive droughts in the mid-1960s led to a food crisis, and foodgrains were imported from other countries.

The spread of Green Revolution technology enabled India to achieve self-sufficiency in foodgrains. India no longer had to be at the mercy of America, or any other nation, for meeting its food requirements.

How much does agriculture contribute to national output?

What does Gross Value Added show?

The Gross Value Added (GVA) measures the contribution of the three sectors of an economy after adjusting for taxes and subsidies. Output is counted in values, not numbers, because cars, computers and nails cannot be added by number.

Formula: Value of output = quantity sold × price per unit

Worked example 2: value of primary-sector output. A total of 10,000 kg of wheat is sold at ₹20 per kg. A total of 5,000 coconuts are sold at ₹15 per coconut. Find the value of each product and of the two added together.

Answer: Wheat: 10,000 × 20 = ₹2,00,000. Coconuts: 5,000 × 15 = ₹75,000. Together: 2,00,000 + 75,000 = ₹2,75,000.

What share of output does agriculture provide?

In India, the share of agriculture in GDP was more than 50 per cent, as expected for a poor country. By 1990 the share of the service sector was 40.59 per cent, more than that of agriculture or industry.

Two stacked bars on a scale from 0 to 100, without printed value labels.

In 1977-78 the blue primary segment is the largest of the three. In 2017-18 the green tertiary segment is the largest and the blue primary segment is the smallest.

Reference: NCERT Class 10 Economics, Chapter 2, Graph 2

What problems of technology, land holdings and rainfall does Indian agriculture face?

The nature of the problems varies with the farming conditions and the history of different regions, so most of the agricultural problems in the country are region specific.

Why is the use of technology limited?

At independence, productivity in agriculture was very low because of the use of old technology and the absence of the required infrastructure for the vast majority of farmers.

Today per hectare output of most crops such as rice, wheat, cotton and oilseeds is much lower than in the USA, Russia and Japan.

The inputs of modern agriculture are very expensive. This resource-intensive approach has become unmanageable for marginal and small farmers, who have very meagre or no savings to invest.

Machines are designed for larger farms and are expensive to buy or rent, although of late machines have also been designed for small farms.

How does fragmentation of land holdings hurt farming?

Fragmentation of holdings is the breaking up of land holdings into smaller parts as land is divided among the owners of the next generations. Under the right of inheritance, land is divided among successive generations, and this has rendered land-holding size uneconomic.

The average landholding is approximately three-fourths of a hectare, about the size of an average football field. Farmers with small landholdings are not able to earn much income, and it is difficult for them to use tractors and other machines.

Worked example 3: a small holding in square metres. The average landholding is approximately three-fourths of a hectare. One hectare is 10,000 square metres. Find the approximate area in square metres.

Formula: Area in square metres = area in hectares × 10,000

Answer: 0.75 × 10,000 = 7,500 square metres, approximately.

Land reform, a change in the ownership of landholdings, was the main focus of the First Five Year Plan. Because inheritance had led to fragmentation, consolidation of holdings was given priority after Independence. The laws of land reform were enacted, but their implementation was lacking or lukewarm.

How does dependence on the monsoon affect farmers?

Irrigation covers only about 33 per cent of the cultivated area in India. Crop production on the rest of the cultivated land depends directly on rain. Poor performance of the south-west monsoon also adversely affects the supply of canal water for irrigation.

The rainfall in Rajasthan and other drought-prone areas is too meagre and highly unreliable. Even areas with high annual rainfall experience considerable fluctuations, so they are vulnerable to both droughts and floods. Droughts and floods continue to be the twin menace in Indian agriculture.

How do scarce rural credit and weak storage and marketing hurt farmers?

Why is rural credit a problem?

Crop production involves considerable costs on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, water, electricity and repair of equipment. Farmers usually take crop loans at the beginning of the season and repay after harvest, so repayment depends on the income from farming.

At the time of independence, moneylenders and traders exploited small and marginal farmers and landless labourers by lending at high interest rates and manipulating the accounts to keep them in a debt trap, a situation from which recovery is very painful for the borrower.

Formal credit has proved inadequate. It needs collateral, an asset that the borrower owns and uses as a guarantee to the lender until the loan is repaid, so a vast proportion of poor rural households were automatically out of the credit network.

A pie chart with printed percentages: commercial banks 51, moneylenders 23, cooperative banks and society 10, relatives and friends 7, other formal agencies 5, other informal agencies 3 and landlords 1.

Reference: NCERT Class 10 Economics, Chapter 3, Graph 1

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) supervises formal lenders such as banks and cooperatives. No organisation supervises informal lenders such as moneylenders, traders and employers. Most of them charge much higher interest, which can lead to increasing debt and a debt trap.

Table: Credit arrangements in the village of Sonpur

Worked example 4: the cost of Rama's loan. Rama owes her employer ₹5,000 at five per cent per month. Find the interest for one month and the rate per annum. Compare it with the 8.5 per cent per annum on Arun's bank loan.

Formulas: Interest for one month = amount owed × monthly rate ÷ 100 and Annual rate = monthly rate × 12

Answer: Interest for one month = 5,000 × 5 ÷ 100 = ₹250. Annual rate = 5 × 12 = 60 per cent. This is far above the 8.5 per cent per annum on the bank loan.

Why are storage and marketing a problem?

Before independence, farmers who sold produce to traders suffered from faulty weighing and manipulation of accounts.

Farmers without information on market prices were often forced to sell at low prices, and they had no proper storage facilities to keep produce back for a better price.

Even today more than 10 per cent of goods produced in farms are wasted due to lack of storage.

The majority of farmers lack storage facilities and are forced to sell their produce even when the market is not favourable. Infrastructure such as roads, railways, warehouses, cold storages and processing units is quite inadequate for the growing demand.

Despite government intervention, private trade by moneylenders, rural political elites, big merchants and rich farmers predominates in agricultural markets.

What measures has the government taken to raise agricultural production?

How do HYV seeds help?

New seed varieties of wheat from Mexico and rice from the Philippines, known as HYVs, were available for cultivation by the mid-1960s. They need fertiliser and pesticide in the correct quantities and a regular supply of water.

What is the role of fertilisers and insecticides?

Consumption of chemical fertilisers has increased by 15 times since the mid-sixties. HYVs are highly susceptible to pests and diseases, so the use of pesticides has increased significantly since the 1960s.

The government gave small farmers loans at a low interest rate and subsidised fertilisers so that they could also have the needed inputs.

How do better irrigation facilities help?

Expansion of irrigation has played a crucial role in raising output. It provided the basis for introducing HYVs, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and farm machinery, and the net irrigated area has increased.

A dense network of canal irrigation and tubewells made it possible to grow rice in areas of less rainfall such as Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan.

Drip and sprinkler irrigation use water efficiently, and the government provides electricity for irrigation at lower prices to reduce input costs.

How does the adoption of technology help?

Modern farms use tractors, harvesters and other machinery. Special weather bulletins and agricultural programmes for farmers were introduced on radio and television. Digital technology gives farmers better access to information and markets, which helps them get better prices.

What is the role of agricultural research centres and institutes?

Research institutes established by the government reduced the risk of small farmers being ruined when pests attack their crops. The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) enabled M.S. Swaminathan and his team to develop short-duration high-yielding varieties of rice, including scented Basmati.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) developed methods for using beejamrit, a seed-coating paste that protects seeds from being spoilt and reduces germination time.

How have rural credit, storage and marketing been improved?

How has rural credit been provided and expanded?

• After 1969 India adopted a multi-agency approach to rural credit, in which several kinds of institutions give credit.
• The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) was set up in 1982 as an apex (topmost) body to coordinate the activities of all institutions in the rural financing system.
• Rural banking today consists of commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs), cooperatives and land development banks, which are expected to give adequate credit at cheaper rates.
• Grameen banks, cooperative societies and banks were established to give farmers loans at lower rates of interest, and crop insurance was provided against drought, flood, cyclone, fire and disease. The Kisan Credit Card (KCC) and the Personal Accident Insurance Scheme (PAIS) were also introduced for the benefit of farmers.

A Self-Help Group (SHG) pools the savings of its members, typically 15 to 20 people from one neighbourhood. Members take small loans from the group at interest that is less than what the moneylender charges.

How have storage facilities been improved?

The government has provided physical infrastructure such as roads, railways, warehouses, cold storages and processing units.

Government warehouses are fully owned and managed by the government through organisations set up in the public sector, for example the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the State Trading Corporation and the Central Warehousing Corporation.

Some marketing cooperative societies have set up their own warehouses for their members.

How has marketing been improved?

1. Regulation of markets creates orderly and transparent marketing conditions. Regulated market yards benefit farmers as well as consumers, but about 27,000 rural periodic markets still need to be developed as regulated market places.
2. Physical infrastructure such as roads, railways, warehouses, cold storages and processing units supports marketing.
3. Cooperative marketing helps farmers realise fair prices, and the milk cooperatives of Gujarat are a success. Cooperatives received a setback because of reasons that include inadequate coverage of farmer members and inefficient financial management.
4. Policy instruments are the assurance of a minimum support price (MSP), which the government announces for important crops to check the exploitation of farmers by speculators and middlemen, the maintenance of buffer stocks of wheat and rice by FCI and the distribution of foodgrains and sugar through the Public Distribution System (PDS).

It has been realised that direct sale by farmers to consumers increases their incomes. Examples are Apni Mandi in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, Rythu Bazars in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and Uzhavar Sandies in Tamil Nadu.

What was the Green Revolution and what were its positive impacts?

What does the Green Revolution mean?

The Green Revolution is the large increase in the production of foodgrains resulting from the use of HYV seeds, especially for wheat and rice. It was based on package technology, which combined HYV seeds with chemical fertilisers in irrigated areas.

In the 1960s and 1970s the Green Revolution also brought more irrigation, pesticides and mechanised equipment.

Draw three arrows, labelled HYV seeds, chemical fertilisers and assured irrigation, pointing into one box named package technology. Draw a final arrow from that box to a second box that reads large increase in foodgrain production, especially wheat and rice.

How did the Green Revolution begin?

1. After Independence, the immediate goal was to increase foodgrains production, by switching from cash crops to food crops, intensifying cropping on land that was already cultivated and bringing more land under the plough.
2. Two consecutive droughts in the mid-1960s resulted in a food crisis, and foodgrains were imported.
3. HYVs of wheat and rice were available by the mid-1960s, and India introduced package technology in irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

Table: Two phases of the Green Revolution

What were its positive impacts?

• Higher foodgrain output: production of foodgrains rose at a very fast rate, particularly of wheat and rice.
• Food self-sufficiency: the country became self-reliant in foodgrain production and no longer had to be at the mercy of any other nation for its food requirements.
• Marketed surplus: the portion of produce that farmers sell in the market. A good proportion of the rice and wheat was marketed, so the price of foodgrains declined relative to other items of consumption.
• Gain for low-income groups: people who spend a large percentage of their income on food benefited from the fall in relative prices.
• Food stocks: the government could procure sufficient foodgrains to build a stock for use in times of food shortage.
• Growth of industry: industries supplying farm inputs, industries processing farm produce and small-scale industries developed.
• Small farmers: they also benefited because of low-interest loans and subsidised fertilisers.

What were its limits?

The Green Revolution was initially confined to irrigated areas, which led to regional disparities in agricultural development till the 1970s.

There was a risk that disparities between small and big farmers would grow, and HYV crops were more prone to attack by pests.

Loans at low interest and subsidised fertilisers helped small farmers get the needed inputs, and research institutes reduced the risk from pests.

Over the last few decades its limits have become visible: long-term impoverishment of the soil, depletion of groundwater, and contamination of soil and water by pesticides and fertilisers.

What is food security, and what is the role of the Food Corporation of India?

What does food security mean?

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. The ultimate aim of agricultural development is to increase food security.

Famines became events of the past, and the abundant buffer stocks of grains reflect the food security achieved. In some states the Public Distribution System functions well, and the health and nutritional status of people in such states is likely to be better.

Which instruments support food security?

Table: Policy instruments for farmers and foodgrain supply

What is the role of the Food Corporation of India?

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is a government organisation set up in the public sector. Its warehouses are fully owned and managed by the government. Its role can be listed in steps.

1. It maintains buffer stocks of wheat and rice.
2. It buys wheat and rice from farmers at the minimum support price, which protects farmers' income.
3. It stores the grain in warehouses that the government owns and manages.
4. Its stocks can be used in times of food shortage.
5. Its stocks are released for distribution through the Public Distribution System, which provides foodgrains at a subsidised rate to the poor.

Glossary

• Agriculture — the science and art of cultivating the soil, raising crops and rearing livestock; it is also called farming and is a primary activity.
• Allied activities — activities linked to farming, such as livestock rearing, poultry, fisheries, horticulture and sericulture.
• Underemployment — a situation in which people are apparently working but all of them work less than their potential; it is also called disguised unemployment.
• Fragmentation of holdings — the breaking up of land holdings into smaller parts as land is divided among the owners of the next generations.
• HYV seeds — seeds of high yielding varieties, developed by scientific processes to give higher yields.
• Green Revolution — the large increase in foodgrain production, especially of wheat and rice, resulting from the use of HYV seeds with fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation.
• NABARD — the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, set up in 1982 as an apex body for rural financing institutions.
• Minimum support price (MSP) — a price announced by the government for important crops to check the exploitation of farmers by speculators and middlemen.
• Buffer stock — a stock of foodgrains such as wheat and rice, maintained by the Food Corporation of India, that can be used in times of food shortage.
• Public Distribution System (PDS) — the system that distributes foodgrains and sugar through the government at a subsidised rate to the poor.
• Food security — a situation in which all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for an active and healthy life.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: agriculture means only growing crops. Correct: it is the cultivation of the soil, the raising of crops and the rearing of livestock, and allied activities such as dairy, fishing and sericulture belong with it.
• Misconception: because agriculture's share in output has fallen, few people work in it. Correct: the primary sector's share in employment fell from 71 to 44 per cent between 1977-78 and 2017-18, but it is still the largest employer.
• Misconception: underemployment means having no job. Correct: underemployed people are apparently working but all of them work less than their potential, which is why it is called disguised unemployment.
• Misconception: fragmentation of holdings means farmers lose their land. Correct: land is divided among the owners of the next generations, so holdings become small and uneconomic.
• Misconception: the Green Revolution raised the output of all crops in all regions at once. Correct: in the first phase its use was restricted to the more affluent states and it primarily benefited wheat-growing regions; it spread to more states and crops in the second phase.
• Misconception: MSP, FCI and PDS are three names for one thing. Correct: MSP is an assurance to farmers, FCI maintains buffer stocks of wheat and rice, and PDS distributes foodgrains and sugar to the poor at a subsidised rate.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. Define agriculture. Name two allied activities of agriculture. [2 marks]

1. Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating the soil, raising crops and rearing livestock, and it is also called farming.
2. Two allied activities are dairy and fisheries. Poultry, horticulture and sericulture are other examples.

Q2. State two ways in which agriculture supports industry. [2 marks]

1. It supplies raw material to industries: cotton for the cotton textile industry, and sugarcane for sugar, gur, khandsari and molasses.
2. It is a buyer of industrial goods: farmers buy tractors, pumpsets, pesticides and fertilisers, so a rise in their prices raises the cost of cultivation.

Q3. Explain any three problems of Indian agriculture. [3 marks]

1. Dependence on the monsoon: irrigation covers only about 33 per cent of the cultivated area, so crop production on the rest depends directly on rain.
2. Fragmentation of land holdings: land is divided among the owners of the next generations, so holdings are small and uneconomic, and machines are hard to use on them.
3. Lack of rural credit: small farmers who cannot get formal credit borrow from moneylenders at much higher interest, which can push them into a debt trap.

Q4. The share of sectors in employment, in per cent, was: 1977-78 primary 71, secondary 11, tertiary 18; 2017-18 primary 44, secondary 25, tertiary 31. (a) Find the fall in the share of the primary sector. (b) Name the largest employer in 2017-18 and give its share. (c) Name the situation in which everyone in a farm family works but all work less than their potential. (d) Give one reason why employment did not shift out of the primary sector as production did. [4 marks]

1. The fall in the primary sector's share is 71 − 44 = 27 percentage points.
2. The primary sector is still the largest employer in 2017-18, with 44 per cent, against 31 per cent for the tertiary sector and 25 per cent for the secondary sector.
3. The situation is underemployment, also called disguised unemployment, because the unemployment is hidden.
4. Not enough jobs were created in the secondary and tertiary sectors.

Q5. Rama is an agricultural labourer who owes her employer ₹5,000 at five per cent per month. Arun, a farmer, has a bank loan at 8.5 per cent per annum. Rama often takes a fresh loan before the previous loan is repaid. (a) Find the interest Rama pays for one month. (b) Convert her rate into a rate per annum. (c) Compare it with the rate on Arun's bank loan. (d) Why is Rama's debt likely to rise? [4 marks]

1. Interest for one month = 5,000 × 5 ÷ 100 = ₹250.
2. Annual rate = 5 × 12 = 60 per cent per annum.
3. The rate of 60 per cent per annum is far above the 8.5 per cent per annum on Arun's bank loan, so Rama's credit is much more costly.
4. She pays a very high interest and takes a fresh loan before the old one is repaid, so the amount she owes keeps growing.

Q6. What is the Green Revolution? Explain four of its positive impacts. [5 marks]

1. The Green Revolution is the large increase in foodgrain production, especially of wheat and rice, resulting from the use of HYV seeds along with fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation.
2. Foodgrain production rose at a very fast rate, and the country became self-reliant in foodgrains.
3. A good proportion of the rice and wheat was sold in the market, so foodgrain prices declined relative to other items, which helped low-income groups who spend a large share of income on food.
4. The government could procure sufficient foodgrains to build a stock for times of food shortage.
5. Industries supplying farm inputs, industries processing farm produce and small-scale industries developed.

Q7. Describe five measures taken by the government to improve agricultural production. [5 marks]

1. HYV seeds: new varieties of wheat and rice that give higher yields were introduced with package technology.
2. Fertilisers and insecticides: low-interest loans and subsidised fertilisers let small farmers buy inputs, and pesticide use rose because HYVs are prone to pests.
3. Better irrigation: wells, canals and tubewells were expanded, and drip and sprinkler systems use water efficiently.
4. Adoption of technology: tractors, harvesters and other machinery are used, and weather bulletins for farmers are broadcast on radio and television.
5. Research institutes: institutes such as ICAR and IARI reduce the risk from pests and help develop high-yielding rice varieties.

Q8. What is food security? Explain the role of the Food Corporation of India (FCI). [5 marks]

1. Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life.
2. FCI is a government organisation set up in the public sector, with warehouses owned and managed by the government.
3. It maintains buffer stocks of wheat and rice, which can be used in times of food shortage.
4. It buys wheat and rice from farmers at the minimum support price, which protects the income of farmers.
5. Its stocks are released for distribution through the Public Distribution System, which provides foodgrains at a subsidised rate to the poor.

Q9. State three measures taken to improve storage and marketing facilities for farmers. [3 marks]

1. Warehouses and cold storages have been provided, including government warehouses and warehouses of cooperative societies.
2. Markets have been regulated to create orderly and transparent conditions, and regulated market yards benefit farmers and consumers.
3. The government announces a minimum support price for important crops to check the exploitation of farmers by speculators and middlemen.

Key takeaways

• Agriculture is the cultivation of the soil, the raising of crops and the rearing of livestock, and it belongs to the primary sector together with dairy, fishing and forestry.
• The primary sector's share in employment fell from 71 per cent in 1977-78 to 44 per cent in 2017-18, yet it is still the largest employer.
• Agriculture supplies raw material to industries such as cotton textiles and sugar, buys tractors, pumpsets and fertilisers from industry, and exports products such as tea, coffee and spices.
• Indian agriculture is held back by limited use of technology, fragmented holdings, dependence on the monsoon, scarce rural credit and inadequate storage and marketing.
• The government has promoted HYV seeds, fertilisers and insecticides, irrigation, technology, research institutes, rural credit through NABARD and cooperatives, and better storage and marketing.
• The Green Revolution, based on HYV seeds with fertilisers and irrigation, raised wheat and rice output and made the country self-reliant in foodgrains, but it began in irrigated areas only.
• Food security means all people have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food at all times, and FCI supports it by maintaining buffer stocks of wheat and rice.

Test yourself

What share of the cultivated area in India does irrigation cover?

Irrigation covers only about 33 per cent of the cultivated area. Crop production on the rest of the cultivated land depends directly on rain.

Why are small, fragmented holdings a problem?

They are uneconomic, farmers with small landholdings are not able to earn much income, and it is difficult to use tractors and other machines on them.

When was NABARD set up and what is its role?

NABARD was set up in 1982 as an apex body to coordinate the activities of all institutions involved in the rural financing system.

In which phase did HYV technology spread to more states and crops?

In the second phase of the Green Revolution, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.

Which system provides foodgrains and sugar at a subsidised rate to the poor?

The Public Distribution System (PDS), which distributes foodgrains and sugar.

Name three organisations that run government warehouses.

The Food Corporation of India, the State Trading Corporation and the Central Warehousing Corporation, which are organisations set up in the public sector.