< Previous | Contents | Next >
After the First Five-Year Plan, Indian agriculture got a step-motherly treatment The farming community has been ignored, while there has been more emphasis on industrialisation and urbanisation. The growth rate of agriculture is only about 2.5 per cent, while the overall growth rate of the country is about 9 per cent (2010). The farmers are not getting remunerative prices, most of them are under debts and in several parts of the country, farmers are committing suicides. This dismal picture is the result of continuous careless agricultural land use planning. Much emphasis has however, been laid on the rural and agricultural development in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan to remove the rural, urban inequality. Creation of 580 lakh jobs has also been proposed in this plan to overcome the problem of unemployment and to check the rural-urban migration. The real challenge for the government is in trying to boost food output at home, and increase investment in rural and agricultural infrastructure for the same, while at the same time not letting its guard down on fiscal prudence or inflation management.
The severe drought of 2009 over greater part of the country has increased the miseries of the farmers, which is a set-back in the revival of Indian economy.