Agriculture Statistics at a Glance in India

Statistics taken from "The Hindu".

As per 2004-05,

Total Population:	1092 million
Total Population in rural areas	819 million
Total (%) in rural areas:	71.4%
Total labor force in India:	467 million (i.e 42%)
Of these, total directly in agriculture(farmers)	247 million (i.e 72.5%)

So wide is the spread of agriculture as an occupation is evident from above.

Let's now see the agricultural area:

Total area under cultivation	142 million hectares
Of these, area dependent on monsoons	100 million hectares
Total (%) area rain fed is	70%

Average area under operational holding	<2>
% of farmers having this area	86%

If India is the largest producer of several crops, it is also the country that has lowest yield per hectare for all crops:

Per hectare yield in paddy

USA	6.2 Tonnes
India	2.9 Tonnes

Per hectare yield in wheat

China	3.9 Tonnes
India	2.5 Tonnes

With respect to Economy,

Agricultural contribution to the total GDP

1970-73	40% of GDP
2005-06	19.7% of GDP

Agricultural growth as against GDP:

Year	Agri-culture	Indu-stry	Services	GDP at factor cost	Per capita NNP at factor cost
1980-81 to 1990-91	3.08	5.79	6.54	5.15	2.82
1992-93 to 2002-03	2.61	5.82	7.65	5.85	3.89
1992-93 to 2005-06	2.57	6.05	7.72	6.00	4.10
1950-51 to 2005-06	2.54	5.19	5.40	4.26	1.94

In other words, from 3.5% in 1980-90, it is 1.7% from 1997-2001, what a sharp decline !!!

Agricultural subsidies : Rs.72,000 Crores >= 2* Annual Outlay in crores

Investment in Irrigation:
1951: 22.6%
2005: 5.6%
Very sharp fall

Investment in Agricultural research should be 6% of GDP atleast. In reality, only 1.3% of GDP is done.

Pending Projects since 60's: 400 worth Rs.79,000 Crores that would have irrigates 21 million hectares.
Agricultural credit given to farmers: 11.1% of the total credit

Another shocking statistics:

Every year 16 million tonnes of food grains and 40 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables rot simply because of no proper infrastructure to store, process and market the produce. All are government dependent.