Agriculture - Environment for UPSC CSE PDF Download

What Is Agriculture?

Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and rearing livestock to produce food, fibre, fuel and other products necessary for human life. It was the key development that enabled the rise of sedentary human civilisation by producing food surpluses and supporting population concentrations in towns and cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago and continues to evolve with changes in technology, policy and environmental conditions.

• Silviculture - the art and science of cultivating and managing forest trees.
• Sericulture - rearing of silkworms for production of raw silk.
• Apiculture - maintenance of honey-bee colonies (beekeeping) for honey, beeswax and pollination services.
• Olericulture - production and culture of non-woody vegetable crops for food.
• Viticulture - science and practice of grape cultivation.
• Floriculture - cultivation of flowering and ornamental plants for gardens and cut-flower markets.
• Arboriculture - cultivation, management and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines and other perennial woody plants.
• Pomology - branch of horticulture dealing with fruit cultivation, production, harvest and storage.
• Aeroponics - growing plants in an air or mist environment without soil or aggregate medium.
• Hydroponics - growing plants in nutrient solutions in water, without soil; roots may be supported in inert media such as perlite or coconut husk.
• Geoponics - conventional farming in natural soil.

Scope and Importance of Agriculture

• Agriculture provides livelihood support to a large proportion of the population. It remains the single largest private sector occupation in many developing countries.
• In the national economy, agriculture contributes significantly to gross domestic product and export earnings; it also supplies raw materials to many agro-based industries such as textiles, sugar, rice, flour mills and dairy processing.
• Agriculture is central to food security, which in turn underpins social and national security.
• Allied sectors - horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries and agro-forestry - play an important role in improving rural incomes, nutrition and employment opportunities.
• In many national datasets agriculture is quoted with specific shares; for example, a commonly cited set of figures shows agriculture contributing about 17.2% to GDP, employing around 56.7% of the workforce, and accounting for about 14.7% of export earnings. These numbers vary with year and source but illustrate the sector's economic weight.

Problems of Indian Agriculture

• Fragmentation of land holdings - division of farms into ever-smaller plots through inheritance reduces operational efficiency and mechanisation potential.
• Prevalence of small and marginal farmers - a large share of cultivators hold very small plots, limiting capital investment, access to credit and economies of scale.
• Regional variation - agro-climatic disparities, unequal irrigation and infrastructure distribution lead to wide inter-regional differences in productivity and cropping patterns.
• Dependence on seasonal rainfall - agriculture in many regions is still heavily monsoon-dependent, making output vulnerable to rainfall variability and droughts.
• Low productivity of land - compared to global averages, yields of several crops remain low due to limited adoption of improved seeds, fertiliser imbalances, poor soil health and inadequate irrigation.
• Increasing disguised unemployment - surplus labour in agriculture reduces per capita productivity and limits diversification to higher-productivity activities.
• Disorder in marketing of agricultural products - inefficiencies in procurement, storage, transportation, price discovery and value chains cause post-harvest losses and low returns for farmers.
• Weak land reform - incomplete implementation of land consolidation, tenancy regulation and secure land titles constrains investment and long-term improvements.

Revolutions in Agriculture

• Green Revolution - rapid diffusion of high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of wheat and rice, coupled with increased irrigation, agrochemicals and mechanisation. In India this began in the 1960s and dramatically increased cereal production in key regions. Internationally, Norman Borlaug is closely associated with the HYV wheat varieties that sparked the Green Revolution.
• White Revolution - large-scale increase in milk production through cooperative development, improved breeds and milk processing. In India this movement was institutionalised under Operation Flood (launched in 1970) and led by the National Dairy Development Board and leaders such as Verghese Kurien.
• Blue Revolution - expansion and intensification of fisheries and aquaculture to increase fish production and fishery incomes.
• Yellow Revolution - efforts to expand oilseed production to reduce edible oil imports and meet domestic demand; programmes and research in the 1980s and 1990s targeted oilseed yields and processing.
• Golden Revolution - rapid growth in horticulture (fruits, vegetables, flowers and plantation crops) and value-addition through improved storage, cold chains and exports.
• Evergreen Revolution - a concept promoted to describe sustainable increases in productivity while conserving natural resources and improving farmers' livelihoods; associated with policies and research advocated by scientists such as M. S. Swaminathan.

Crop and Its Classifications

Agronomy - the term is derived from Greek: agros (field) and nomos (management). Agronomy is the specialised branch of agriculture dealing with crop production and soil management. A crop is any plant cultivated on a large scale for food, fodder, fibre, fuel or other human uses.

Classification based on climate

• Tropical crops - crops that grow well in warm and hot climates. Examples: rice, sugarcane, jowar (sorghum).
• Temperate crops - crops suited to cool climates. Examples: wheat, oats, gram (chickpea), potato.

Classification based on growing season

• Kharif (monsoon) crops - sown with the onset of monsoon (June) and harvested in September-October or later. They require warm, wet conditions during the main growth period and often flower under short day lengths. Examples: rice, cotton, jowar, bajra (pearl millet).
• Rabi (winter) crops - sown in winter (October-December) and harvested in spring (March-April). They grow in cool, dry weather and often require longer day lengths for flowering. Examples: wheat, gram, mustard, sunflower.
• Zaid (summer) crops - short-duration crops grown between rabi and kharif (March-June). They require warm, relatively dry conditions and longer day lengths for flowering. Examples: groundnut (in some regions), watermelon, pumpkin and other gourds.

Agronomic classification of crops

• Cereals - cultivated grasses grown for their starchy edible grains; staple foods in many regions. Major cereals include rice, wheat, maize, barley and oats. Rice is the most important cereal worldwide.
• Types of wheat - bread wheat, macaroni (durum) wheat, emmer wheat and dwarf wheat are examples of wheat types used for different purposes and agro-ecologies.
• Millets - annual grasses that are hardy and adapted to marginal soils and low rainfall; important staples for many poor and semi-arid regions.
• Major millets - sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi).
• Minor millets - foxtail millet, little millet, proso (common) millet, barnyard millet and kodo millet.
• Pulses (grain legumes) - primary sources of dietary protein, particularly important in vegetarian diets. Pulses improve soil fertility through biological nitrogen fixation and serve as short-duration cash crops. Examples: red gram (tur), black gram (urd), green gram (moong), cowpea, Bengal gram (chana), horsegram, soyabean, peas and garden bean.
• Oilseeds - grown for extraction of edible and industrial oils; seeds have relatively high fat content. Examples: groundnut (peanut), sesamum (gingelly), sunflower, castor, linseed (flax), niger, safflower and rapeseed & mustard. Typical oil content in many oilseeds can be substantial (often cited ranges are around 30-50% for different species).
• Sugar crops - crops grown for extraction of sugars from stems or tubers.
• Sugarcane - stems (canes) yield juice used to make sugar (and jaggery). By-products include:
  • Molasses - used for alcohol production and as feedstock for yeast industries.
  • Bagasse - fibrous residue used for paper making, fuel and cogeneration of electricity.
  • Pressmud - a residue from clarification used as a soil amendment.
  • Trash (leaves and dry foliage) - used commonly as cattle fodder.
• Sugar beet - a root crop grown in temperate regions for sugar extraction; tops and tubers are often used as fodder.

Practical Implications and Policy Areas

• Improving irrigation coverage and water-use efficiency to reduce dependence on monsoon.
• Promoting crop diversification, value chains and post-harvest infrastructure (cold chains, storage, processing) to raise farmer incomes.
• Land consolidation, secure land tenure and cooperative approaches to reduce the constraints of small and fragmented holdings.
• Soil health management (balanced fertilisation, organic matter, crop rotations) to raise sustainable productivity.
• Strengthening agricultural research, extension services and access to credit and markets to support technology adoption by smallholders.
• Promotion of allied sectors (dairy, fisheries, horticulture, agro-processing) to create off-farm employment and improve rural livelihoods.

Summary

Agriculture encompasses a wide range of activities from crop production to livestock, forestry, fisheries and horticulture. It remains central to food security, livelihoods and industrial raw materials. Indian agriculture faces challenges such as small holdings, monsoon dependence and marketing inefficiencies, but past revolutions (Green, White, Blue and others) show how targeted technology, institutions and policy reforms can raise production. Future gains will depend on sustainable intensification, better infrastructure and stronger market linkages to improve incomes and resilience for farmers.