Agriculture and Environment

It is against this backdrop that Peoples’ Foundation aims at creating and promoting a vibrant partnership at grass root

Agriculture in India is the source of livelihood for about 60% of the people as farmers, tillers, cultivators and labourers. The story of Indian agriculture is marked by abundance and increasing food grain production over the decades combined with volatility in output yield and prices leading to fluctuating sectoral growth from 5 to 4% to a low of 2.5 % in the recent years. India is the top grower of wheat, sugarcane, pulses, cotton, milk, horticulture fruits and vegetables but the yield in agriculture is found to be lower than the USA, Brazil & China. Agriculture in India contributes 17% GDP and also marked by a low export figure of 12% and import of 4%.

The key issues affecting the sustainability, productivity, income & growth in Indian agriculture range from decreasing and small fragmented size of landholdings, dependence on monsoon, access to irrigation, imbalanced and indiscriminate use of fertilizers and nutrients, uneven access to modern technology, lack of access to credit market procurement and remunerative prices. Farmers also lack access to quality seeds, agri-market sound infrastructure and good storage and post harvest facilities and technology indiscriminate & irrational use of fertilizers and ground water exploration have led to air, water and soil pollution.

It is against this backdrop that Peoples’ Foundation aims at creating and promoting a vibrant partnership at grass root level, of all the stakeholders from farmers, researchers, agro-scientists, field level educators to credit providers, buyers, importers, exporters and researchers and public institutions , autonomous bodies and the government departments for bringing them together on a platform benefitting them all.