Page 298 - DMGT509_RURAL MARKETING

Unit 15: Marketing of Agricultural Produce

the GCI scenario, which appears to have implications for the future development of the Notes
Communist Chinese polity if the current economic performance of China is to continue
uninterrupted in the years to come.
It will be remembered that in the GCI set-up it is only in the sphere of technology that
India had a marginal advantage over China (64th and 65th positions). But in the Business
Competitive Index India is ranked 37th with China following at 46th. This is not all. In the
company operations and strategy rankings, India is at No 40 while China is at No 42; the
respective figures for “quality of the national business environment” being 36 and 44.
India’s performance in the last index holds out hope because it indicates that the Indian
environment is more suited for efficient business operations than is the case with China.
The question is: Will the emerging Indian political set-up play ball?
Agriculture is a way of life, a tradition, which, for centuries, has shaped the thought, the
outlook, the culture and the economic life of the people of India. Agriculture, therefore, is
and will continue to be central to all strategies for planned socio-economic development
of the country. Rapid growth of agriculture is essential not only to achieve self-reliance at
national level but also for household food security and to bring about equity in distribution
of income and wealth resulting in rapid reduction in poverty levels.
Indian agriculture has, since Independence, made rapid strides. In taking the annual food
grains production from 51 million tonnes of the early fifties to 206 million tonnes at the
turn of the century, it has contributed significantly in achieving self sufficiency in food
and in avoiding food shortages in our country. The pattern of growth of agriculture has,
however, brought in its wake, uneven development, across regions and crops as also
across different sections of farming community and is characterized by low levels of
productivity and degradation of natural resources in some areas. Capital inadequacy, lack
of infrastructural support and demand side constraints such as controls on movement,
storage and sale of agricultural products, etc., have continued to affect the economic viability
of agriculture sector. Consequently, the growth of agriculture has also tended to slacken
during the nineties.
Agriculture has also become a relatively unrewarding profession due to generally
unfavourable price regime and low value addition, causing abandoning of farming and
increasing migration from rural areas. The situation is likely to be exacerbated further in
the wake of integration of agricultural trade in the global system, unless immediate
corrective measures are taken.

Over 200 million Indian farmers and farm workers have been the backbone of India’s
agriculture. Despite having achieved national food security the well being of the farming
community continues to be a matter of grave concern for the planners and policy makers
in the country. The establishment of an agrarian economy that ensures food and nutrition
to India’s billion people, raw materials for its expanding industrial base and surpluses for
exports and a fair and equitable reward system for the farming community for the services
they provide to the society, will be the mainstay of reforms in the agriculture sector.
The National Policy on Agriculture seeks to actualise the vast untapped growth potential of
Indian agriculture, strengthen rural infrastructure to support faster agricultural development,
promote value addition, accelerate the growth of agro business, create employment in rural
areas, secure a fair standard of living for the farmers and agricultural workers and their
families, discourage migration to urban areas and face the challenges arising out of economic
liberalization and globalisation. Over the next two decades, it aims to attain:

1. A growth rate in excess of 4 per cent per annum in the agriculture sector;
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