1. BOOSTING AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCTIVITY
Co-ordinated by
MuthuLakshmi.V
Team Members
Muthu Lakshmi.v, Jyothi.c,Bhagyalakshmi, Asha B.R

2. PREFACE:
1. Introduction
2. Problems in agriculture
3. Proposed solutions
4. Implementation of the solution
5. Impact of the solution
6. Challenges to the solution
7. Appendix

3. INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is called the back bone of India as it has got a prime role in Indian economy.
India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables and the third largest producer of
food grains.
Since the population of today is increasing the farmer is not able to meet the requirement of
the people completely. He is now using some chemicals in order to increase the production.
These chemicals that keep the weeds and pest away cause pollution to the soil, water and this
may also spoil the crops by getting into it.
It is advised to the farmers to follow organic farming that does not involve use chemical
substances and cause harm to any of the resources.
Indian agriculture needs to grow to remain competitive in the world’s economy and to become
an exporter of food to the world.
REASON FOR SELECTING:
To improve the poverty line of economy, agriculture and productivity to increase the income
and this has to be done through the use of technology which is beneficial for the Indian
farmers.
By investing, research and development, industry and government can boost agriculture
productivity growth which can lead to increased food exports more effectively and sustainable
natural resource.
In order to increase the productivity the green revolution plan was started during the middle of
1960

4. PROBLEMS IN AGRICULTURE
1. Population Pressure:
India has a huge population and still is increasing at a very fast rate. This is
creating a great demand for land and every bit of land has been brought under the plough.
Even the hill slopes have been cut into terraces for cultivation.
2. Small and fragmented land holding:
The pressure of increasing population and practice of dividing land equally
among the heirs has caused excessive sub divisions of farm holdings. Consequently the holdings
are small and fragmented. The small size of holding makes farming activity uneconomical and
lead to social tension, violence and discontentment.
3. Inadequate Irrigation facilities:
Many of the farmers do not use irrigation method or do not have irrigational
facilities and leads to lack of appropriate amount of water needed by plants. They wait for the
monsoon rain that is not very sure.
4. Depleted Soil:
Indian soils have been used for growing crops for thousands of years which have
resulted in the depletion of soil fertility with deforestation and the source of maintaining
natural fertility of the soil has been dried out. Lack of material resources and ignorance of
scientific knowledge have further depleted the soils natural fertility.
5. Storage Of Food Grains:
Storage of food grains is a very big problem. Nearly 10% of our harvest goes waste every year in
the absence of proper storage facilities. This colossal wastage can be avoided by developing
scientific ware housing facilities.The government has taken several steps to provide storage
facilities.

5. 6. Farm Implements:
Although some mechanization of farming has taken place in some parts of the
country, most of the farmers are poor and do not have enough resource to purchase modern
farm implements and tools. This hampers the development of agriculture.
7. Climatic Change:
Climatic changes cause an adverse effect on agriculture. Years ago the soil, water
and air were not contaminated but now it is totally impure. So the climate, water and soil
condition has to be maintained in order to maintain the soil fertility.
8. Deforestation
The cutting of trees or deforestation cause harm to the soil fertility. The major effect
of deforestation is soil erosion and decrease in the ground water level.
Other problems faced by the farmers on agriculture are:
 Rising cost in the labor and materials, but output prices are not rising in tandem.
 Promotion of expensive GM seeds has made the financial status of poor Indian farmers
worse. GM cotton in India has failed because it showed no increased resistance to pests.
 Over-Withdrawing of water from underground have caused underground water
depletion

6. PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
Here are some solutions for the problems given above.
1. Irrigational facilities:
Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the land or soil.Irrigation
includes protecting plants against the frost, suppressing weed growth and helping in preventing
soil consolidation.
Irrigational methods are of many types Drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation and
flood irrigation.
These types of irrigational facilities consume less amount of water and supply
adequate amount of water to the plants. Therefore the farmers need not depend on monsoon
rains or about the drying of plants.

7. 2. Mechanical Agriculture:
It is the process of using agricultural machinery to mechanize the work of
agriculture greatly increasing farm worker productivity.
This increases production efficiency, mechanization encourages large scale
production and improve the quantity of farm produced.
So if mechanical agriculture is followed by our farmers they can decrease their
working time and increase the supply.
Mechanical agriculture includes using of tractors, trucks, combine harvesters, air
planes (crop dusters) and other vehicles.
3. Fertilizers:
It is an organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to
a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plant. Almost half of
the people on this earth can be fed by the use of synthetic nitrogen.
Fertilizes provide Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, calcium, magnesium and
sulfur which are needed in large quantities and boron, chlorine, copper ions, manganese,
molybdenum, zinc and nickel. The other 3 macro molecules required by plants are Carbon,
Hydrogen and Oxygen.
The use of organic fertilizers made from plants will improve the production.
Examples of some organic fertilizers are seaweeds, hoof and horn, dried blood, bone meal,
etc.

8. 4. Herbicides
They are also called weed killers. Kill unwanted plants and keeps the desired crop
relatively unharmed. The growth of weeds near a healthy plant can hamper the growth of
the healthy plant.
Examples of some herbicides are Buctril Herbicides and Trimec 899 Broadleaf
Herbicides
5. Pesticides:
These are substances meant for preventing, destroying or mitigating any pest. This
protects the plants from damaging, affected by diseases or insects. The pesticides are of
2 types that is chemicals and biological agents like bacteria, virus, antimicrobial or
disinfectant which kills or discourages pest.
Biopesticides are those that is derived from animals, plants or micro organism that
does not cause any harm to biological system.Examples of some biopesticides are
Canola oil and baking soda.
6. Soil Fertility Management:
The methods that help in soil conservation are
 Stubble planting
 Mulching
 Contour ploughing
 Strip planting
 Mixed or inter cropping
 Crop rotation
 Terrace farming

9. The main key for development of agriculture is to maintain the soil fertility.the
above points are the ideas to increase the fertility of soil that will increase the production of
plants.
The fertility can be increased by adding compost that can also be used as
natural fertilizers.

10. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SOLUTION
This proposed solution in the above slide help the farmers increase the productivity of the
crop without spoiling any of the resources such as water, soil, air and other organism that
consumes it.
The fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides used by farmers should be perfectly organic in nature.
Organic stuffs does not cause any harm to the atmosphere, but may take some time to react
when compared to chemicals put to protect the plant. The chemicals may protect the plant but
cause an extreme damage to the soil fertility and the animals which consume it.
The farmers who are not aware of the modernization are taken classes by some experienced
agriculturalist who will teach the application and using of these forms of agriculture, their uses
and advantage.

11. Financial support for agriculture:
Keeping in view the interest of the farmers as also the need of self reliance,Government has
been announcing Minimum Support Price for 24 crops.
The main objective of announting this price are:
 To prevent fall in prices in the situation of over production.
 To protect the interest of farmers by ensuring them a minimum price for their crops in
the suitation of price fall in the market.
The minimum support price of various crops are announced on the basis of recommendation
made by Agriculture Cost and Price Commision which takes into consideration the inputs costs
and favorable return to the farmers while recommending minimum support price.
AgriFin works with 11 financial institutions from Africa and Asia. These projects are designed to
help recipients improve their capacity to offer financial services to the agricultural sector.
Project funds are primarily used to build capacity, provide staff training, and invest in delivery
channels to increase outreach in rural areas. They cannot be used as capital for on-lending,
equity, or partial guarantees.
Foodgrains procurement by the government serves the dual purpose of providing support
prices to farmers and of building up public stocks of food grains.Procurement operations are
carried out by the food corporation of india and the state agencies designated by state
government procedure prices are based on support price recommended by commission for
agricultural costs and prices.

12. IMPACT OF THE SOLUTION
Significant challenges will have to be overcome to achieve the level of agricultural productivity
necessary to meet the predicted world demand for food, fiber, and fuel in 2050. Although
agriculture has less skilled labor, and a limited amount of arable land, among others met
significant challenges in the past, targeted increases in productivity by 2050 will have to be
made in the face of stringent constraints—including limited resources.
Mechanization is one factor that has had a significant effect on TFP since the beginning of
modern agriculture. Mechanized harvesting, for example, was a key factor in increasing cotton
production in the last century. In the future, mechanization will also have to contribute to
better management of inputs, which will be critical to increasing TFP in global production
systems that vary widely among crop types and regional economic status.
Agricultural mechanization, one of the great achievements of the 20th century (NAE, 2000),
was enabled by technologies that created value in agricultural production practices through the
more efficient use of labor, the timeliness of operations, and more efficient input management
with a focus on sustainable, high-productivity systems. Historically, affordable machinery,
which increased capability and standardization and measurably improved productivity, was a
key enabler of agricultural mechanization. Many examples shows some major developments
since the mid-1800s by John Deere, a major innovator and developer of machinery technology.
Sustainability of the solution:
Region, despite the fact that the total labor force involved in agricultural activities is
experiencing Agricultural mechanization is a key factor in the world’s ability to feed itself and
rapid mechanization in agriculture has allowed the sector to keep up with the demands of
population, particularly in the Asia-Pacific annual declines.
Thus far, however, current agricultural mechanization practices have increased pressure on
fragile natural resources, such as increasing soil erosion and promoting overuse of chemical
inputs, the latter seen in heavy utilization of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in crop production
typically resulting in significantly more nitrous oxide (N2O) [1] emissions from agricultural soils
than that occurring from less intensive, low-tillage techniques. Mechanization also plays a role
in encouraging farmers to open lands that currently serve as valuable forests and rangelands.
In addition, the agricultural sector as a whole consumes more than 70 per cent of the world’s
total fresh water resources.

13. In short, the margin of error in our actions to address rapid recourse depletion, yet feed more
people than any time in the history of our planet, is narrowing rapidly. Coupled with
increasingly erratic weather events, such as prolonged flooding and drought, the task ahead for
the agricultural sector is daunting.
In response, the United Nations Asian and Pacific Centre for Agricultural Engineering and
Machinery (UNAPCAEM) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations held
a Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization Strategies Roundtable 8 - 9 December at FAO’s
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. The Roundtable addressed the
modalities in developing Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization Strategies (SAMS) that can
enable countries to achieve the dual goals of intensifying agricultural production and achieving
environmental sustainability. The latter is particularly important for the Asia-Pacific region,
which is already beginning to face serious environmental challenges to maintain its agricultural
production base. The Roundtable, which established a platform for increased substantive
collaboration and tangible action on SAMS between FAO and UNAPCAEM, was attended by
country representatives in the area of agricultural mechanization from Bangladesh, China,
India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam. Key
participation also included stakeholders from the private sector, donors, UN agencies and
experts on agricultural mechanization strategies.

14. CHALLENGES TO THE SOLUTION
Ergon undertakes a range of advice, research and analysis regarding labour practices in smallholder and
plantation agriculture.
For example, Ergon has been consultant to the multi-stakeholder Better Cotton Initiative since 2006,
focusing on social and economic aspects of sustainability in cotton cultivation – including labour
practices (plus a focus on gender); access to markets, information, technology and finance; and
producer and worker organization.
A review of tools, actors and approaches to promote decent work in agriculture; and a review of global
activities to promote access to finance in smallholder agriculture.
According to the WTO, India would have everything to gain from a full liberalization of the international
markets for agriculture, industry and services alike. The liberalization of international agricultural trade
would allow India to develop and meet the great challenges it faces:
>Boost its exportation of agricultural goods and thereby reduce the country’s trade balance
deficit. Its balance of trade is largely negative, particularly within the agricultural sector. While
imports grew by 64 percent from 1998 to 2001, exports fell by 7 percent over the same period.
This is mainly because the Indian
> Import, at lower cost, an increased variety of products that would help the country react to
Westernized modes of government neglected the export market for quite some time,
concentrating instead on supplying the national market. The country’s exports served at the
time as a way to sell off surplus food.consumption. Indians have started to modify their dietary
habits, and for the time being, imported products alone are able to satisfy their expectations
and new needs, given that national food production is insufficient both in quantity and in
diversity.
.

15. > Stimulate its economic growth by increasing its share in the international trade of agricultural
and agrifood products (currently at 1.2 percent) and benefitting as much as possible from the
growing potential of Indian demand, stimulated by population growth and improved purchasing
power.
The WTO also purports that free trade in services would be essential for economic growth and
development in India, for it holds certain competitive advantages, particularly in the profitable
economic sectors of new technologies and computing.

16. APPENDIX
All the informations collected from:
1.International Plant Nutrition Institute.
2. The Asian Green Revolution
3. Wikipedia
4. Arkbird publication
5. encyclopedia
6. G.K book-Tarun Goyal
7.Preserved article
8. expert series pu text book