Backward Agriculture - A Cause Of India's Poverty

The biggest challenge facing India's policy makers is the persisting high incidence of poverty. One of the reasons for the high incidence of poverty in India is its backward agriculture, whose productivity per hectare and per capita is amongst the lowest. The low per capita production is not only due to huge population, but also due to low productivity, which is only 64 percent of the world average.The productivity potential of Indian agriculture has been amply demonstrated in Punjab, where it is nearly equal to those of developed countries. If India attains the productivity level already achieved in Punjab, the national income of India would be more than double of what it is today. Taking into consideration the vast untapped potential of Indian agriculture, the pool of unutilized scientific knowledge and the eagerness of Indian farmers respond to opportunities, neither Indian agriculture should remain backward, nor our people should remain almost the poorest in the world. Quite often, low productivity of Indian agriculture is attributed to small size of landholdings.