Sustainable agriculture and development

Sustainable agriculture is a basic element of sustainable development. Sustainable agriculture is a way of producing  food that is healthy for consumers i.e., either humans or animals. The most basic feature of the sustainable agriculture is that it does not harm the environment and is beneficial for environment.Sustainable agriculture ensures the respect of animals and the food produced should be healthier for animals too.

sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is not only beneficial for health and environment friendly but also provides fair wages to farmers and the chemical free farming avoids the costly inputs for farmers thus sustainable agriculture is economic friendly and provides fair wages to farmers.
Sustainable agriculture is humane for workers and supports the rural community in various aspects and enhances the farming of rural community. As we know in agriculyural country like India most of the rural community is engaged in farming thus sustainable agriculture helps in the overall development of rural community.

Why do we need sustainable agriculture?

Today due to long term agriculture practices the land is over- manipulated due to over manipulation the fertility of soil is loosing. Erosion, desertification and wrongusage of land is also responsible for loosing soil fertility.  These reasons are promoting soil erosion and over application of chemical fertilizees and pesticides are exploiting soil and affecting farming. Other than these population is inreasing, forests are destroying Flood, erosion and desertification cannot be avoided easily. There is no more agricultural land that is available for coming generation, but increasing population demands a lot of agricultural land, food , water and other resources.

The use of chemicals in tbe agri fields increased to a huge extent afte world war 2, and today it is increased to a huge extent, that are causing te waste of resources and causing the environmental pollution which treatens the life of coming generationss.

Objectives of sustainble agriculture

To control the above issues, to live a healthier life and to provide a safe environment to upcoming generation we should accept the sustainable agriculture. There are certain objectives of sustainable agriculture these objective are described here :-

• Preserves biodiversity- As we know due to various chemicals used in farming today the soil biodiversity is declining and the microorganisms in soil such as earth worms are killed by these chemicals. But the sustainable agriculture is free from any of these chemicals thus it plays a major role in preserving the biodiversity and we an say that sustainable agriculture preserves biodiversity. Not only soil microrganisms but also other organisms are indirectly affected by sustainable agriculture by the healthier food produced by sustainable agriculture.

• Avoids deforstation- Deforstation is another faulty practice by today's genertion, sustainable agriculture helps to reduce this faulty purpose, cutring of trees lead to a great threat to environment as due to deforstation the number of trees arecreducing so the amount of water is also reducing which affects the survival of coming generation.So, deforstation should be stopped as much as possible which is possible by performing sustainable agriculture.

• Protects the economy of farmer-  This is one of the main objective of sustainable agriculture i.e., to increase the income and protects the economy of farmers. As sustainable agriculture do not include any costier chemicals as inputs , thus save the investment of farmers and in result higher productivity due to natural fertilizers is another advantage of sustainable agriculture. Thus it is helpful in ovrall economic development of farmers.

• Provides good health to society- We already discussed above that sustainable agricultre is a production offood that healther to consumers as well as fr animals. As it provides heathier food therefore it prvides a good health to society which is another great advantage of sustainable agriculture and attracts a lot of people towards it.

• Maintain quality of water- The dribking water is very less in amountin aome areas of country like India. We saw a lot water crisis in some area inspite of high level of wate we cannot rhe wawe dr deinking, this is because of bad water quality. Sustainable agricultur provide a good water quality which matters a lot for health of human beings.

• Soil conservation- Soil conservation is very much needed in todays era, because soil erosion is on peak due to faulty human practices. The loss of soil due to erosion can be controlled by sustainable agriculture, so that the soil remain fertile not only for toays generarion but also for upcoming generations, so the ere should not be any scarcityif food and other resources for coming generations and they should live properly.

• Safety of community- Safety is foremost for any community , the improper practices of people such as use of chemicals in agriculture affectng the safety of community, but sustainable agriculture assures this safety to the farmers and population either in name of economy or in health purpse, it provides overall safety to the community.

Thus, it is not only important but necessary to accept the sustainable agriculture in our life it is beneficial for both farmers as well as for consumers. This helps the farmers in getting the actual price of their goods thus protects the economy of the farmers and provides healthy life to the consumers.

Ministry of Agriculture and farmers welfare

Ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare was earlier known with the name ministry of agriculture. It is a branch of Indian government which generally focus on the development of agriculture in the country and works for the welfare of farmers.

HISTORY

Before independence in late nineteenth century Department of Revenue and Agriculture as setup by the existing government,  but later on at the time of independence in the year 1947 department of agriculture was modified to Ministry of Agriculture. Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the first Agriculture Minister of India.

Later on after 69 years of independence on 15 August 2015 Prime Minister of India - Mr. Narendra Modi addresses the nation and announced that Ministry of Agriculture will renamed with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare.

DEPARTMENTS

Ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare consists of 3 department , these departments are:-

1) Department of Agriculture Research and Education-  This department  focuses on the agricultural education across the country and various research works performing by various states and central agricultural universities. This department of ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare also work for arranging an interlinked network between various state and central universities across the country.

2) Department of Agricultural Cooperation and Farmers welfare-This department generally helps the farmers in promoting coopertive movements and thus helps te farmers in identifying the felt needs and make way for them to fulfil these needs. 

3) Department of Animl Husbandary, Dairy and Fisheries-  This department ensure a good livestock production in the country and a good system of aquaculturei the country.

These departments works in theirrespective field and work with a common goal of devolping a good agricultural system in the country, and for the welfare of the society. Each departmentia headed by the secretory of the respective department.

                     LAYOUT 

Cabinet minister-  Narendra Singh Tomar

State minister- Parsottambhai Rupala

State Minister- Kailash Chaudhary. 

Head quarter- New Delhi

Official Website- http://agriculture.gov.in/
This was the layout of ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare.

Major Schemes by Ministry of agriculture and Farmers welfare

Various schemes are launched by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare since it was established for the benefits of the farmers. Some of the major schemes are listed here:-

1- Soil Health Card -  This scheme was launched by the collaboraton of sate government and central government ( equal share), the investment was equal from state and central government.  This schemewas firsy launched in Rajasthan and main focus was on the nutrient status of the soil. A card was provided to the farmers which renews on every 3 year duration.

2- Pradha Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana- 

This scheme  was started on 13 January 2016. It is to provide farmers he insurance of tjeir crops which sometimes het destry due to natural problems such as drought, flood , etc. Rhis scheme was compulsary for loanable farmers and not compulsary for nonloanable farmers. India insurance company AIC runs this scheme.

3-  Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna-  This scheme is a subcomponent of Soil Health Management (SHM). This scheme aims to promote the Organic Farming. Governmet provide funding for the production from far to market but it is a collective area approach and minimum 50 acres of land is required to fulfill the criterion.

4-  eNAM-   National agricultural marketing is an online portalfor themillions offarmers across the country for online trading. The ultimate aimis to increase the trading and approach of the farmers from the rual area across the country. This online portal make it easier fo farmers to reach the buyers directly and reduces the involveent of middlemen so the farmers get the actual cost of their production.

5 - NationalFood Security Mission-   The utimate aim of this scheme is to enhance th production of food crops as well as cash crops cross the country.  The prduction of food crops such as rice, pule, cereals, etc and commercial crops such as cotton,  juye, sugarcabe, etc. was the main target of this scheme. This scheme as also initiated with the collaboration of the central as well as state gvernments. Government provides ideal disease free seeds to farmers and armers also get help of Integreted Pest Management, for the healthy production of crops.

6- Padhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojna-   

The main objective of this yojna was to increase the irrigation coverage of the agricultural yojna across the country. More Crop Per Drop was the main objective of this scheme means using minimum water more irrigation should be provided.

7- Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna- 
Rashtriya krishi vikas yojna aims  the development of whole agriculture condition of the country including food security , crop production, crop management, etc. So the agriculture in India go upto a good height achieve sucess in future and strenghen our economy.

8-  Rashtriya Gokul Mission- 

Rashtriya gokul mission was started for the conservation and developmety of indegenous breeds i.e., indegenous breeds of cattle. Establishment of indgenous cattle development centre i.e.,  Gokul Grams is anotjer achievment of this proramme so that i field of livestock and dairy India can chieve success.

9- National initiative on climate resilient agriculture-    This scheme was started with an objective that farmer can overcome the adverse condition and maintain their production even in harsh and unfavourable condition by the use of climate resilient agricultural practices and by sustainable use of available manmade and natural resources keeping upcoming adverse climatic conditions in mind. This is one of the major schemes of ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare.

10-  Krishi Vigyan Kendra- 

Krishi vigyan kendra is a great advantage for farmers provided by Indian government , in these centres farmers get practical training and learning by training  is the mehodology of these centres.
There are approx. 706 KVKs in India right now which provides professional training to the farmers, but only professional and working farmers are trained in these centres and learns professional skills by training method.

These were the major schemes launched by ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare that worked for the benefit of the agriculture in India. Apart from these there are several other schemes also initiated by ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare. 

As India is an agrarian economy so our administration should ensure that these schemes must get proper implementation at ground level. So each and every farmer of the country should get the benefit and overall economy of our country should rise.