The Changing Profile of Indian Agriculture
Contents: Foreword. I. The Green Revolution: what went wrong?: 1. Soil fatigue. 2. Land degradation. 3. Vanishing water. 4. Other factors. 5. Seeds. 6. Fertiliser. 7. Irrigation. 8. Rainfed agriculture. 9. Credit. 10. Insurance and risk management. 11. Marketing and pricing. 12. Reforms. 13. Extension and technology transfer. 14. Inertia in oilseeds and pulses. 15. Investment and capital formation. II. Farmer distress: 1. Farmer suicides. 2. National policy for farmers. 3. Government\'s response to the crisis. III. The changing profile: 1. Growth in non-cereal potential. IV. Drivers of future growth: 1. Bridging the yield gap. 2. Livestock. 3. Poultry. 4. Bee-keeping. 5. Rabbit farming. 6. Horticulture. 7. Floriculture. 8. Agro-processing. V. Novel farming practices and new technologies: 1. Organic farming. 2. Vermiculture. 3. Biodynamic agriculture. 4. Conservation agriculture. 5. Biotechnology. 6. Biodiversity. VI. Research and human resource development: 1. Investment. 2. Infrastructure and environment. 3. Refocusing research. 4. Scientific manpower development. 5. Intellectual property protection. VII. Climate change: 1. Impact. 2. Combating global warming. List of abbreviations. Index.
"Roughly half of India\'s population lives off agriculture, with most of them eking out a marginal existence. This reality clearly necessitates change, particularly as the momentum of the Green Revolution has been lost with stagnation, even crisis, setting in.
How will this change come about?
The answer, Surinder Sud argues methodically and with ease, lies in thinking of agriculture beyond the wheat-rice and cotton-tobacco framework. The future rests in diversifying into higher value crops, adopting yield-enhancing modern farm practices and better technological inputs, gaining efficient access to new markets -- in short, a completely new paradigm.
Surefooted from decades spent reporting on the subject, Sud provides a comprehensive analysis of Indian agriculture from the time of the much-feted Green Revolution to the present -- and, crucially, charts the path to the future. From irrigation and fertilizer to innovative farming practices, from credit and infrastructure to farmer distress, from marketing and pricing to climate change, from poultry and rabbit farming to horticulture and floriculture -- this book provides a fresh construct for agricultural growth. Written in a simple, jargon-free style, The Changing Profile of Indian Agriculture is an essential read for anyone interested in Indian agriculture."
