Introduction

Any country’s economic growth and development mainly depend on whether its agricultural sector can fulfil the needs of many or not. India is currently the largest producer of milk, pulses and jute and the second largest producer of rice, wheat, cotton, fruits and vegetables, being the largest exporter of agricultural goods India clocked around 46.9 billion dollars in revenue which is expected to grow further in coming years. But that was not the scenario after independence when the British left India.

India was actually a food-scarce nation, the country’s agriculture was mainly rain dependent and the majority of the population was dependent on farming.

There were several policies that changed the existing system to make India self-reliant. During the period from 1950-1960, India’s agricultural growth was stagnant with low growth in crop and grain production.

But after the 1960’s it started to change when India faced a food crisis and had to import grains. The new strategy was formed for agriculture under the advice of Dr M.S. Swaminathan was then advisor to the Minister of Agriculture. Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (born 7 August 1925) is an Indian agronomist, agricultural scientist, and plant geneticist.

The green revolution is led by Swaminathan around the world. As the main architect of the green revolution in India, he introduced and developed high-yielding wheat and rice varieties. Swaminathan’s collaborative scientific efforts with Norman Borlaug, spearheading a mass movement with farmers and other scientists and backed by public policies, saved our country from mass feminine. 

The Current Scenario and Challenges

Now after decades from being a food-scared nation to one largest exporters, India has come a long way. The Agricultural Sector holds the current share of 20.2% of GDP and provides employment for 49.6% of the workforce. The growing Indian population and the steady economy are a sign of that. 

Especially after the 2000’s policies were created with respect to agricultural growth. Policies Like the Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) [1994] opened the market for the farmer by creating FPO for better linkage and providing better reach to them for a higher return. Horticulture Mission for North East And Himalayan States (HMNEH) [2001-2002] with the aim of improving the production, and productivity of horticulture crops and also providing employment to locals of those regions.

Similarly, other schemes and plans were introduced to incentivize farmers, provide crop-related info, and introduce insurance schemes for farmers and crops. Every year, these policies and schemes must be improved in order to meet the increasing challenges.

The Challenges

• The growing instability of the water, in the past few decades farmers have grown their dependencies on groundwater resources without even realizing that the resource is hard to replenish. Sucking out water from deep down the earth’s surface requires powerful motors and electricity, this creates another sort of challenge for state and central government where the government subsidizes the electricity bills of farmers.

• Instability in water resource management can be due to a lack of mechanization which can save lakhs of liters of groundwater.

• The cropping pattern and type of crop that a farmer produces also need to be revised. Farmers should be incentivized for producing less water-intensive crops and change the type of crop they produce to a non-food crop in every season.

• Soil nutrition is also a factor that poses a serious threat from both farmer’s and consumer’s perspectives. Planting the same type of crop every season will deplete the soil of its nutritional value which in turn leads to lower crop yield resulting in the use of fertiliser and pesticides by farmers, which can affect the consumer’s health in the longer term. 

• Traditional joint families which were a part of Indian culture are turning into small nuclear families that come at the cost of distributing the land ownership into no. of pieces.

• Agricultural marketplace and Inadequate transportation facilities have always been a major challenge for farmers. An open marketplace and proper incentive models that enables a farmer to get the best price for its crops, and a proper transportation system integrated with a database of farmers for a particular region.

The Current Scenario in agriculture is focused on new methods of farming such as organic farming, terrestrial farming, urban farming, etc. These methods are being actively adopted to overcome the challenges that farmers face in their fields. Simultaneously new start-ups are emerging that help local farmers grow and sell more effectively. 

Organic farming deals with many issues such as using manure and compost instead of fertilizers for a healthy crop, crop rotation for better soil nutrition, and use of precision farming for ecological sustainability.

The New Revolution

The First Agricultural Revolution started back in 12,000 years ago and now everyone is anticipating the fourth agricultural revolution. This revolution includes the adoption of modern tech and the use of geospatial data in farmlands, extensive mechanization, the use of drones, the adoption of precision farming, geotagging cropland, crop health management, etc. The Integrated use of AI with other geospatial services can boost the sector. Let’s dig a little deeper and know what solutions or alternatives geospatial services offer. First and foremost the issue of water resource management, Geospatial enable tools will help in better management by providing or informing them with solutions like mapping and monitoring of irrigation systems, and crop water uses analysis.

Smart farm management solution which includes precision farming, precision irrigation, crop mapping and monitoring, and crop health analysis. To improve agricultural production sustainability, precision agriculture focuses on observing, measuring, and responding to temporal and spatial variability. Crop health monitoring, crop identification, crop acreage, and crop identification come under crop monitoring services. This service provides valuable data regarding soil moisture data, NDVI, and forecasted and actual data on rainfall.

The drone market has also seen significant growth in the agricultural sector. Drone-based solutions whether it be mapping, crop health assessment, or spraying fertilizer/water through these are all cost-effective solutions that many small and medium scale size farmers can use. The Integrated AI solution with Geospatial services can enhance the data management and data analysis for the region by understanding the pattern, and better decision-making for management.