India: Gifted in agriculture, going after industries

Introduction of 'Make in India' and this whole debate and drama over Land Acquisition is an indicator that India is at the beginning of creating a new horizon of industrialization.

And yes it should happen as its one of the basic economic and employment need of any nation.

But what should be the length and breadth of the industrial expansion about to come?
This question is a serious one and defines the type of results (good or bad) we will get from industries.

To answer this question lets first take a look at some facts

• Intense industrialization in Europe during the mid 18th to 19th century lead to
  Increase in pollution
  Overcrowded cities and unhealthy residents.
  Lack of sanitation
• China is the living example of an overly industrialized country which is economically well off but is a masterpiece of POLLUTION to such extent that  some 1.6 million Chinese people die per year because of it and rest suffers from serous lung disease. Wearing a mask when outdoors is a common practice there 
• Blindfolded Industrialization in India has led to incidents like Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
• Even today residents of some major industrial cities like Chennai ,Mumbai ,Kolkata are facing serious pollution and health problems.

 So even if industries create job opportunities and economy, we can’t simply erect them recklessly only to become the next CHINA ! 

We must have a firm control on the number and type of industries being build 

This is something which Mr Modi should keep in mind before openly inviting foreign firms and telling them to ‘Make in India’(Younger brother of  ‘Made in China’) and assuring them easy land and labor .
Yes, we do need a moderate industrialization but we should definitely avoid the excess hunger for it.

But if we don’t industrialize enough, how would we generate economy and employment?
To answer this  lets take a look at Arab countries .Their main source of economy and employment is petroleum extraction  because they are naturally gifted with petroleum  resources for it .
India also has a sector in which it is exceptionally gifted then others, a sector which is being considered a rather dead one for the past few decades, Agriculture.

Potential

•  India is the 2nd largest country with arable land ( 60.3 percent of land is agriculture land) after USA

•  India has variety of climates and ecological parameter to support the growth of various crops.

• India ranks in top 3 to top 10 ranking of  producers of every crop it grows.

Then why Agriculture isn’t able to generate good economy and employment?

Bugs

• Indian Agriculture has outdated Infrastructure ,handicapped post management of crops and no schematic and structural measures against floods and droughts.
  This disrupts food security(click here to know what it means) , decrease the no. of exports and sometimes paves way for compensatory  imports despite the fact that we are among top producers.
  
  
• Farmers lack new skills and resources of modern agriculture which are being used in other countries.  

  

  Grain Damage due to pathetic
  Post Management

  
  This drawback is reflected on international level when countries with land and climate worse than ours  perform better just by opting modern agriculture skills.

•  Variable land ownership:  Small amount of farmers have large area of land and Large amount of farmers have small area.
  This is one of the biggest reason why agriculture isn't employment friendly because it makes farming profitable only to a certain section of farmers.
• Importance of Agricultural Engineering and research is decreasing.This leads to lack of innovation in this sector.
• Successful Irrigation and unhindered harvest mostly happen at the mercy of nature.This makes it more of a gamble to engage in this sector.

Crop Destroyed due to unwanted Torrents of rain 

So we can conclude that our agriculture through gifted is doomed because of the lazy and outdated vision of administration and government.

Now lets deal with the a tricky question

Would agriculture be able to solve economy and employment problems if some changes are done?

'Yes it can but it won't!'

This is because we don't need 'some changes' in it.What we need instead is the complete makeover because the present form is useless because of 'Variable land ownership' and dependence on weather.

Possible New Frame

• If agriculture is to be used to provide employment to masses then what government can do is
  -Take over a good amount of land from farmers
  -Use that land as 'Government Farm' in which specify new sub-farms with almost equal area
  -Now give 'jobs' to farmer on one of the sub-farms which are in or closer to his/her village.Farmers working here should get monthly salary.Also farmers working under same climatic conditions shroud get same salary
  -All the resources like seeds, fertilizers etc will be purchased by govt and all the product of farming will go directly into food banks.
  -For this job give farmers proper workshops on modern agriculture
  
  Q-Will farmers be ever ready for this?
  A- Yes why not? They will get monthly fixed salary which is much better then the fluctuating income they get now.
  Also they won't have to worry about spending their earning on input material.
  Yes some big farmers may oppose this but for most of them its a win-win deal.
• The 'Govt Farms' should be protected from Nature's Wrath, this can be easily done by Agricultural and Civil Engineering.
  e.g
  -Link all the Govt farms to regular water supply.
  -Make every farm ready for the drip irrigation technique(click here to know more about it).  
  -If a farm is close to river then dug a deep hole around the govt farm area and between hole and farm create a dam like wall to protect it from flooding of river
  Connect that hole to pipes which will end in a nearby farm water tank.
  -To protect farm crops from direct torrents of rain create plastic farm curtains or ceiling which can be put up whenever necessary
  
  Q-Won't this all cost a lot?
  A-Yes, but the cost will be much lesser than that of erecting a lot of factories.
  Q-Is doing all that possible in India?
  A-Why not? Indian is the land of elite engineering colleges from which thousands of engineers graduate each year.We must trust their skills.

India needs both Factories and Farms in proper ratio.Too much or too less of either of them will be a stupid step.
Moreover, being a developing country we not only get the opportunity of learning from the mistakes of other countries but also that of redefining the meaning of development.

Source:http://www.upscguide.com/content/important-points-land-acquisition-bill

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/keyword/land-acquisition-act

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Controversy-Over-Land-Acquisition-Bill-All-You-Need-to-Know/2015/03/07/article2701536.ece

http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0712/top-agricultural-producing-countries.aspx

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.PRD.CROP.XD/countries

http://www.firstpost.com/business/india-enough-land-farming-bigger-issues-worry-2032327.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_India#History

http://faostat3.fao.org/browse/Q/*/E

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_rankings_of_India

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drip_irrigation