9. CONCLUSIONS/ IMPORTANT FINDINGS

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1 Conclusions/ Imp. Findings CONCLUSIONS/ IMPORTANT FINDINGS The State s economy has undergone a considerable transformation in the recent past with growth of manufacturing and services sectors. However, agriculture, with over 60% of the State's population dependant on it, continues to play an important role. Agriculture, including animal husbandry, contributes about one fourth to the State s Gross Domestic Product. Growth of the agriculture sector therefore has an important impact on State s economic performance and more importantly on the lives of people dependent on agriculture. In view of the rather limited water resources and the surface water resources mostly confined to some parts of the State, agriculture is primarily rain fed. Arid and semiarea cover two third area of the state. Due to State s geographical location, it receives monsoon at the end and, hence, the period of monsoon is short, around three months only. The State faces late onset and early withdrawal of monsoon. Ninety per cent of the rainfall received during monsoon season. Sustaining and in fact increasing agricultural production in the face of poor monsoon and limited water resources is a major challenge. Some of the main challenges before agriculture sector are: To achieve a higher growth rate and stability in the face of recurrent droughts and rapidly declining water table. To increase levels of investment, particularly private, in the agriculture sector for modernization, diversification and commercialization. To achieve coordinated development of agriculture and livestock for maximizing benefits to farmers. Fodder availability and development of a dairy network hold the key to a vibrant livestock sector. To modernize agriculture markets to ensure better realization for the producer and availability of produce to buyers and for stimulating diversification agriculture.

2 Conclusions/ Imp. Findings 199 To encourage setting up of agro-processing and agri-businesses enterprises for value addition in agriculture produce and generating new employment opportunities. Concerns in Agriculture Sector Efficient use of water (Uncertain rains, uneven distribution, decreasing availability of ground water, availability of canal water decreasing and uncertain also). Deteriorating soil health. Low Productivity (High Production Vulnerability) Uneven and unstable production from year to year and across the region within the same year. Low Technology adoption. Inadequate infrastructure. Lack of Crop diversification-reliance on traditional crops due to low investment capacity and uncertain weather conditions. Low R&D investment / effort especially for drought prone / rain fed areas. Weak extension machinery Declining number of extension workers to cater increasing number of clients (farmers) Inequity between productivity in irrigated and un-irrigated areas. Under developed Markets Inadequate marketing linkage / support. A large tract of land, about one million hectare is having saline and alkaline soils. Key Findings from Primary Data Analysis; Young and educated people are least interested in Agriculture Employment. There is no motivation in Agriculture since 58% farmers do not earn more than one lac in a year.

3 Conclusions/ Imp. Findings 200 The Agriculture in Rajasthan is completely depending upon monsoon, since the only 24% farmers are having irrigation facility. Unavailability of irrigation facility compels the farmers to search other occupation like private job, labour work, daily wagers and MHNREGA Availability of Agro inputs at cooperative societies is not very sound. The farmers have to depend on last year crops or village merchant for seeds. Benefits of subsidized fertilizers and quality seeds are confined to certain influential people. There is lack of scientific quality checking system of seeds; Standardization and grading facility at Panchayat/Tehsil Level, due to this; farmers are unable to leverage the better quality crops. Castor, Mustard, Isabgol, and aloe-vera are major commercial and medical crops sown in Western Rajasthan. The farmers are not focused about high value traditional crops like Kair, Sangaree, Kumatiya etc. which are in high demand. Chemicals and fertilizers are mainly used by those farmers who are having irrigation facility, rest use chemicals in case of crop disease and emergency. Although they are aware about organic farming, yet unable to get benefit due to unavailability of scientific quality checking system. Most of the farmers sell their final produce to village merchant because they have taken loan (For Agriculture Inputs and other needs) from him on condition of selling the crop. There is awkward situation for the farmer, No Crop without Loan and No Loan without Crop. He never gets the fair price for crop and also has to pay higher interest rate (24-30%) on loan. He traps in a vicious circle.

4 Conclusions/ Imp. Findings 201 The farmers sell their produce to Government on minimum support price in case of bumper harvesting and he is offered very low price in open market. The quantity to be purchased by government depends upon the Girdawari Report, Quality of Crop and discretion of Purchasing Manager. A normal farmer does not get timely payment of his crop and quantity is also undervalued. The farmers do not prefer to take loan from banks and cooperative societies due to lengthy process, hidden charges, more documentation, hard recovery norms and less flexibility. Although the rate of interest is much lower than private lenders yet the availability is tough. Kissan Credit Card is the most popular and hassle free credit facility available among various schemes but the end use of KCC is not monitored. Farmers do not take it to purchase agricultural inputs rather to take advantage of crop insurance and other government schemes. The farmers prefer to take it from cooperative banks due to easy availability and lower interest rates. They withdraw entire sanctioned amount in one time and use for non agriculture operation also. The farmers are not very much satisfy with existing Agro Marketing System and expect many reforms like promotion of Direct Farming, Contact Farming, Organic Farming, Direct Purchase Centre, Farmers Markets, Information Facility, Standardization and Grading Facility. The officials from various departments are strongly in favour of expanding e- Choupal business model at small villages and dhani level. Key Findings from Analysis of Secondary Data Rajasthan, the largest State in India is spread over an area of 3.42 lac sq. km, which is 10% of the area of the country. The State s population as per the census of 2001 was 56 million, which is 5.5% of Country s population. 77% of State s population resides in the rural areas.

5 Conclusions/ Imp. Findings 202 The State has lac hectare of area reported for land utilization purpose. Out of this, 7.76% (26.60 lac hectare) is under forest cover and 12.43% (42.59 lac hectare) is not available for cultivation consisting of 5.14% (17.60 lac hectare) under non-agricultural usage and 7.29% (24.98 lac hectares) of barren and uncultivated land. Fallow land is estimated 10.75% (36.82 lac hectare) which includes 3.72% (12.75 lac hectare) current fallow and 7.02% (24.07 lac hectare) other fallow land. Other uncultivated lands excluding fallow land is estimated 18.35% (62.69 lac hectare) which includes 4.98% (17.08 lac hectare) under permanent pastures and grazing land, 0.04% (0.14 lac hectare) under miscellaneous tree crops and grooves and 13.27% (45.46 lac hectare) of cultivable waste lands. Estimated net sown area is 50.76% ( lac hectare) and the gross cropped area is lac hectares. Total cropped area in the state is lacks, out of which lac hectares has saline soil and sodic soil problem and 1.79 lac ha is under soil alkalinity. 125 lac ha area is mono cropped 4.95 lac ha area is occupied by gully and ravines and 0.23 lac ha is water logged. Soil fertility is declining at present and deficiency of zinc, iron and sulfur has been noticed in vast areas. 33% of the cropped area is irrigated out of which 27% is irrigated through canals and 65% through ground water. 67% of the area is rain fed due to the fact that the state has only 1% of country's water resources. Average annual rainfall is 557 mm. Agriculture and allied sector contributes about 27% to the GSDP. Average farm size in Rajasthan is 3.96 ha, and total number of land holdings is 5.36 million. Small and marginal holders represent one-half of the total number of farm households, but they share just 16% of the cultivated land The rain-fed crops on which they are so dependent were grown in an extremely hostile agro-climatic environment, with temperatures varying from a minimum of 5ºC to a maximum of 45ºC and more. Rainfall variations are large, both in space and in time, with annual precipitation ranging from 15 to 90 cm in different parts of the State.

6 Conclusions/ Imp. Findings 203 The production of food-grains has registered a compound growth rate of 2.9 % per annum which is almost similar to the growth in population being 2.8% per annum for last one decade. The growth in food grains has been contributed by two factors i.e. by increase in yield levels and area expansion. In oilseeds considerable higher growth rate of 6.6% has been attributed primarily due to area expansion. Now the possibilities of increasing agriculture production through area expansion are very little. The expansion in production output, therefore, has to be a function of improvement in yields. Attaining higher levels of growth in agriculture production will become crucial in years to come if the trends in population rise continue to be at the same rate which has been observed in the recent past (2.8 % per annum). With this rising trend of population, the requirement of food-grains by the end of XI Plan for an estimated population of 7.22 crore, be around lac ton Cereals, and lac ton Pulses, 7.27 lac ton oil based upon per capita requirement. To meet this requirement, the production programme will have to focus a target well above the real requirements. It is highlighted that during last 20 years period ( to ) the growth rate of production of Food-grains and Oilseeds was 2.9% and 6.6% respectively. While the State has over 10% of the country s geographical area, 5% of its population and 13% of the area under cultivation, it has only less than 1% share in the water resources. Water, clearly, is State s most precious resource. In absence of perennial sources, there has been overdependence over ground water, leading to mining of water in many parts of the State. Besides its quantity, the quality of water is another major concern. It is, therefore, not surprising that only about one third of the cropped area of 2 million hectares is under irrigation. What is even more disconcerting is that nearly two thirds of the irrigated area is dependent on underground water from wells and tube wells. Most of the area irrigated by the canal system is in the northern part of the State where the Indira Gandhi Nahar Project (IGNP), Gang and Bhakra Canals systems irrigate more than 1.2 million hectares. In recent years, reduction in the availability of water in the reservoirs has resulted in either

7 Conclusions/ Imp. Findings 204 reduction in the cropped area or damage to crops, sometimes leading to agitation by farmers. Decreasing per capita availability of water in Rajasthan, this is anyway below the national average. Soil erosion is the most serious and widely prevalent threat to productive land in the State. Productive land is a source of human sustenance and security. It is a non-renewable resource which provides the essential social environment in terms of shelter, roads and other land based facilities. Soils in Rajasthan are also subject to heavy moisture loss by quick evaporation. Uncontrolled run off not only result in loss of water and good top soils, but also in loss of valuable soil nutrient. Adopting appropriate soil & water conservation measures can considerably increase fertility of soil in rain fed areas. For increasing the agricultural productivity and production, proper management and availability of agricultural inputs including seeds are important. Distributions of improved seeds are mainly through Rajasthan Seeds Development Corporation, National Seeds Corporation and other private dealers. Other inputs like fertilizers distributed largely through a network of PACs, IFFCO, KRIBHCO and other private dealers. Under the agriculture extension and input management programmes, various measures undertaken to reduce the adverse affect of erratic monsoon and hostile weather conditions on agriculture production. Over the past decade, the Government of Rajasthan (GOR) has made concerted efforts to systematically develop horticulture in the state. This has resulted in development of certain belts of horticulture crops. Thevaried agro climatic conditions and soils in the state make it suitable for growing a wide range of fruits like ber, pomegranate, citrus, aonla, mango, papaya, custardapple, etc. Besides, cultivation of seasonal vegetables; medicinal and aromatic plants like Isabgol, mehandi, senna, etc., spices like cumin, methi, coriander,

8 Conclusions/ Imp. Findings 205 chillies, ajwain, ginger garlic, etc., betel vine; flowers like rose and jasmine and oil yielding plants like jajoba, castor, Jatropha, etc., offer opportunities for much desired diversification in agriculture through a balanced use of land, water and other resources for promoting sustainable agriculture besides increasing the income of the farmers by raising high value crops. Essentially, the challenge before the agriculture sector is to maximize farm income by a coordinated approach focusing on best utilization of the available water with higher productivity, crop diversification, value addition and emphasis on livestock development. Though the contribution of agriculture in the State GDP is declining (it has come down from about 30% in the beginning of this century to about 20% currently), a large percentage (about two thirds) of the total population is still dependent on agriculture. Unequal land distribution small percentage of land holders own large amount of land, while majority of the farmers are marginal and small farmers Women s ownership in all sections hovers around 3.5 % Declining expenditure in agriculture and allied services and irrigation (Irrigation and Flood Control) by the state government in terms of its share in total state government expenditure as well as total expenditure by the government on Economic Services. Though the share of spending on irrigation and flood control is showing some increase year onwards, the major expenditure in irrigation is being made on major irrigation; medium and small irrigation getting less than one third of total expenditure on irrigation.

9 Conclusions/ Imp. Findings 206 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY The study has faced certain limitation also. The data and findings collected by me may be subject to biases in opinions from the respondent and responses given by them may not be 100% true. Illiteracy of respondents may be the biggest limitation of the study as most of the respondents are not literate and aware about the marketing strategies of agro products. The working style and transparency of government agencies and cooperative societies has also been under examinations so it is quite possible that I would not be able to get real and accurate information from concern people. After collecting data and information, the analysis done by me, may be affected by certain prejudice and mind set held by me about agricultural marketing system. AREAS OF FURTHER RESEARCH Agricultural marketing is a specific part of marketing. It is related to agricultural products only. It is the base of most of the economic activities of a country. It brings marketable surplus to the market for sale. Farmers will keep a portion of their produce for self-consumption and cattle and the remaining portions are left for sale. Higher level of marketable surplus leads to greater economic development. There are tremendous opportunities in Agricultural and allied activities marketing, there and there are a few empirical studies in this area. Thus, there is a huge scope for conducting of studies in this area. The major areas of further research may be as follows; I. Retail Foreign Direct Investment and Agriculture II. Marketing of Agricultural Inputs III. Effectiveness of Cooperative Marketing IV. Scope of Organic Farming in India V. Kisan Credit Card: Way Forward VI. Analysis of Public Distribution System VII. Land Reforms and Agriculture Development VIII. Relevance of I.T. in Agriculture. IX. Water Management X. Analysis of Food grains procurements under Minimum Support Price.