Major Problems of Indian agriculture.

Agriculture is a way of life for 50% Indian population, but unfortunately everything is not right with Indian agriculture. We read daily in newspaper that farmers are protesting against government and committing suicide.

Inspite of various efforts and plans implemented by government very few of them able to tackle the challenges of farmers.
We are discussing about these major problems of Indian agriculture and there solutions to an extent.

Major problems of Indian agriculture:-

1. Lack of  extension education- In India there is no focus on agriculture extension. The extension education which helps in extending the scientific knowledge of agriculture to the farming community for enhancing production, marketing, including value addition to the agricultural produces with the application of latest technologies for higher income of farming community is called agriculture extension. But unfortunately there is not much focus on agriculture extension in India which left the farmers underskilled..
2.  Improper Agriculture marketing-
     Marketing skills of Indian farmers are really poor,  is one of the important field in which the government should focus to increase the economic conditions of farmers, many farmers even do not know the the actual price of their crop and sell their crop in very low wages to middlemen , these middlmen make their own profit by selling these crops in high prices in the market. These middlemen disturb the whole economy of the farmers.  So, government should make effortto remove these middlemen from the farming community.
3. Faulty method of Irrigation-Proper methods of irrigation is important part of agriculture, there are various methos of irrigation which are used withg respect to various crops and particular region for eg.- trees and vine crops requires drip irrigation. As little amount of water is required in these plants hence driip irrigation system is used. In this way keeping the water req]uirement in mind various methods of irrigation are used.
4.  Connectivity between rural an urban area- As I discussed in my earlier blog   https://agritalks031.blogspot.com/2019/06/scope-of-agriculture.html?m=1 that 75% people of Indian population living in rural area is engaged in farming. So, there should be proper connectivity between rural and urban area such as proper road to minimize the cost of transportation, because major proportion of their market is in urban area. Middlemen also take advantage of this problem and buy agriproduce in very low price from farmers and sell them in very high prices in urban market, and farmers donot get their actual cost.
5. Manure and fertilizers- In India a large amount of organic manure is produced, but a cery litle amount of that manure is used by farmers in the field and chemical fertilizers are used in place of organic manure. Organic manure is very important for fertiity of the field but major part of that manure is used as a source of biofuel production in rural kitchens so very little amount is left for field. Thus givernment shoud focua on this topic and provide must subsides on LPG to rural farmers so that most of the organic manure through cow dung should used in field as organic manure.
6. Fragmentation of land-
    Increasing population is a huge threat in India. Increase in population leads to fragmentation of land which in turn result in small land holding. Agriculural land availability per family is decreasing day by day because the population is increasing and the use of joint family system is declining in the country, hence land get fragmentated.
7.     Soil erosion- A major problem of Indian agriculture soil erosion is defined as detachment, transportation and deposition of soil particles. Due to various factor such as water and wind soil is transported  place to another and get deposited at another place, this results in the loss of soil. In India soil erosion is a major problem government should impose some more steps and plans to prevent this. Soil conservation  is the only way to protect the productive land in a predominantly agriculture country like India where flood, drought, and famine caused chronic food scarcity. Soil conservation not only increase the crop yield but also prevents further declination of land.
   
   
8.   Outdated technology-
   Modern technology is not very much included in Indian agriculture till now, most of the technology which are used in Indian agriculture are outdated and and do not match modern requirement.So, what farmers need actually is the support of government in getting modern technology implements and modern agriculture quipments.
9.  Cropping pattern- There are various cropping pattern used for different crops and to fully utilize the land, So that maximum production can be achieved in minimum area. For.eg.- Strip cropping in which a strip of erosion resisting crop is alternated with erosion permitting crop. Not using proper cropping pattern and improper agriculture practices such as not sowing seed in proper depth is a serious threat in Indian agriculture.  
10.   Lacking unity of farmers -

Indian farmers lacks unity but development of unity among farmers is very important aspect of agriculture. It is very important for oraganizing  farmers into groups for eg.- kisan union and developing leadership quality among the farmers.So that the farmers can identify the felt needs and can raise their voice for their rights and to fulfil their requirements, and can utilize the resources that they have and can demand for those they do not have.

These were the major problems of Indian agriculture along with their solutions. To develop the economic condition of India first we have to strengthen the backbone of Indian economy i.e., agriculture., and administration should also ensure that plans and policies implemented by government are implemented at ground level so, the policies planned by government should not limited to newspaper but also implemented at ground level and benefits should reach to each and every farmer.