Agriculture in Indian Economy

Indian economy is dependent mainly on agriculture to flourish. The first five year plan was all about agriculture, the green revolution. In order to make Indian economy independent from the very basic level, government has put more emphasis on agriculture. However, in Indian economy, two factors, agriculture and industry, seem to have a conflict with each other. Excessive inclination to agriculture is one of the many features of an underdeveloped country. To understand the reason behind such a proposition one doesnt need to be a scholar in Economics. Lets imagine that after graduating some student can choose his career either in agriculture or in software. In order to make the model simplistic we will ignore all other choices that a student might have in real world. Also we will assume that the student is only concerned about the financial prospect. Which one between software and agriculture will he choose? In order to make the decision we have to undertake some comparative study here. We assume that if you choose a career in computing you may write software to earn $13 per day. With this amount you can buy nearly 50 breads per day. Now as a farmer he can produce 10 breads a day, which means, his earning reduces to $2.6. The same thing happens to a country with excessive dependence on agriculture.

India economy has more than 57% of its national income contributed directly or indirectly by agriculture. We assume that there is a definite and limited amount of labor at a given time. This corresponds to the limited human resource in Indian economy at a given time. Lets assume that for every 3 such workers Indian economy, we can employ none in software and 3 in agriculture, 1 in software and 2 in agriculture, or, 2 in software and 1 in agriculture. Like any other major economies of the world, Indian economy cant entirely do away with at least some form of farming so we can do away with the combination of 3 software engineers and no farmers. Now lets inspect in details the financial outcome of each of these combinations. If you have your entire workforce employed in agriculture then your income will totally depend on farming and of course, the income will be minimal. As the number of software personnel increases your income increases. The gross income reaches its maximum wh en you employ 2 software engineers and only 1 farmer.

In Indian economy for the citizens to accept this crude reality they should have a minimum level of education and awareness. No matter how we deny, but its the basic education that holds the staff of Indian economy. All the policy makings should be directed primarily to this field. Indian economy is self reliant in a sense that it has a large area under cultivation. But that doesnt mean that we have enough food to feed ourselves. Some politicians are extremely sentimental about importing food from other countries. In democratic structure there is a presence of opposition party and the ruler. The resistance offered to the West Bengal government while giving away land to Tata motors to set up automobile farm is an example of how, in democratic system, even a foresighted resolution taken by the ruling party can face mindless opposition. When you are in opposition it doesnt mean that all you have to do is to oppose. The opposition argued that industrialization shouldnt be achiev ed by sacrificing farming. But in reality you have to give up something in order to achieve something. This theory absolutely holds in the present scenario of limited resources. Policy made in order to improve Indian economy shouldnt revolve around elections. The people to whom all these policies are directed to are not getting the entire benefit. The primary cause of this chaos is of course a disbelief in the then government and partly, the lack of political and economical awareness among the villagers. Thus an approach of mass education is what we urgently need in those areas. This is necessary in order to assist the villagers in general and the farmers in particular, to take political decisions independently. If we can make education our backbone the path of healthy industrialization will only get widened and Indian economy will flourish.