The agriculture industry in India reached a value of INR 63,506 Billion in 2020. Agriculture accounts for a major part of the livelihood of 40% of the world’s population and occupies 40% of total land area; 90% of farms worldwide have a size of less than 2 hectares. India has the 10th-largest arable land resource in the world. With 20 agri-climatic regions, all the 15 major climates in the world exist in India. The country also has 46 of the 60 soil types in the world. During 2019-20* crop year, food grain production was estimated to reach a
record 295.67 Million Tonnes (MT). In 2020-21, Government of India is targeting food grain production of 298 MT.
Total area sown with Kharif crops reached 88.21 million hectares by the end of July 2020. India can be among the top five exporters of agro-commodities by shifting its focus on cultivation and effectively handholding farmers, according to the World Trade Centre. Total agricultural export from India grew at a CAGR of 2.27% during FY16-20 to reach US$ 35.09 billion in FY20. India’s spices export increased by 23% to Rs. 2,690 crore (US$ 359 million) in June 2020 from Rs. 2,190 crore (US$ 292 million) in the same month last year. The Agriculture Export Policy, 2018 aimed to increase India’s agricultural export to Rs. 4,19,340 crore (US$ 60 billion) by 2022. Government aims to raise fishery export from India to Rs. 1 lakh crore (US$ 14.31 billion) by 2024-25.
In October 2020, Agri-lender Nabard (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) proposed plans to set up a subsidiary to provide guarantee for loans under agriculture and rural development.
The Electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), launched in April 2016 to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities by networking existing Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs), had 16.6 million farmers and 1,31,000 traders registered on its platform until May 2020. Over 1,000 mandis in India are already linked to e-NAM and 22,000 additional mandis are expected to be linked by 2021-22.
The Government of India has introduced several projects to assist the agriculture sector. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sinchai Yojana (PMGSY) aims to irrigate the field of every farmer and improve water use efficiency to achieve the motto, `Per Drop More Crop’. Overall, the scheme ensures improved access to irrigation. In the Union Budget 2019-20, the scheme was allocated Rs. 3,949.90 crore (US$ 565.16 million). As per Union Budget 2020-21, Rs. 2.83 lakh crore (US$ 40.06 billion) has been allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rs. 1,233 crore (US$ 176.42 million) has been allocated to the Ministry of Food Processing. PM-KUSUM scheme was expanded to provide 20 lakh farmers for setting up stand-alone solar pumps and help another 15 lakh farmers to solarise their grid-connected pump sets.
