Category: Agriculture and Industries of India
Industries in India may be classified as follows: 1. capital and labour employed, 2. nature of raw materials used, 3. sources of raw materials, and 4. nature of ownership of industrial organization.
Category: Agriculture and Industries of India
India is predominantly an agriculture country. Agriculture contributes significantly to the National Income. At the same time Indian agriculture is completely dependent on the vagaries of monsoon.
Category: Agriculture and Industries of India
The word manufacturing literally means “to make by hand?. In a broader sense manufacturing means the process of conversion of raw materials into more useful and valuable articles with the help of artisans or machines.
India is predominantly an agriculture country. Agriculture contributes significantly to the National Income. At the same time Indian agriculture is completely dependent on the vagaries of monsoon. Indian farmers gamble their fate with monsoon every year.
Agriculture and Industries of India : - Agriculture and Industries of India
Agriculture
Agriculture
is the act of land cultivation, animal husbandry and horticulture for the
benefit of the mankind. Landforms, climatic conditions, soil fertility, and
availability of water and human resources are the major determinants of
agriculture. These factors influence the pattern of agriculture in India. The
topography of India favours the crop cultivation. A greater part of India has a
tropical monsoon climate. The seasonal rainfall contributes significantly for
the cultivation of crops. However, the cropping pattern differs greatly
depending on amount of rainfall received in a region. Agricultural activities
require skilled labourers at the time of sowing, and harvesting. This human
resources is abundant in India. Skilled and cheap labour is a major determinant
for the cultivation of coffee, tea and jute. The availability of fertile soil
is one of the major determinants of the pattern of agriculture. Rice, sugarcane
and jute require fertile alluvial soils or the deltaic alluvial soil. These
crops are best grown in the deltaic regions of perennial rivers. The black soil
favours the cultivation of cotton. In India, the patterns of agriculture is
classified on the basis of land, water, volume of production and market for
agricultural produce. Subsistence agriculture is a method of agriculture in
which farmers themselves consume crops cultivated. Rice, the staple food of the
people of southern India and wheat, the staple food of the people of northern
India, are the main crops cultivated in subsistence agriculture. Commercial
agriculture is a type of farming in which crops are cultivated on a large scale
with the sole intention to sell them in domestic or foreign market. Rubber, tobacco,
cotton and sugarcane are some of the important crops cultivated under
commercial agriculture. Plantation agriculture is a type of framing in which
crops are cultivated on a large scale, about hundreds of acres on a hilly or
mountain areas. The plantations are organized on the line of factories and
companies. Rubber, tea and coffee are the important crops cultivated under
plantation agriculture. Plantation agriculture system is widely practiced in
hilly areas of north-eastern regions and regions of the Eastern Ghats. These
methods of agriculture are practiced in several parts of India during three
cropping seasons, the Kharif season, the Rabi season and the Zaid season.
Strategies
to overcome the challenges facing Indian agriculture
(a)
Steps taken by the government:
1.
The government has introduced better inputs and new agricultural equipments to help
the farmers. These measures have shown significant improvement in the quality
of output.
2.
The government has set up agricultural demonstration farms such as Suratgarh Farm
in Rajasthan in order to demonstrate how technology helps to increase the
output.
3.
The government has taken several measures through legislation to consolidate small
holdings into large holdings. This would give the farmer the benefit of
economies of scale.
4.
The government has set up various research institutions to guide the farmers by
providing new farm machineries such as rice seeders, vibration oscillators and power
tillers. The use of these ancillaries have shown significant growth in output.
5.
The government has set up co-operative societies and agricultural development banks
to provide the financial assistance to the farmers.
6.
The government has come out with many schemes to help the farmers to meet their
challenges. Crop Insurance Scheme is one such scheme.
7.
The government has set up Food Corporation of India providing the farmers an assured
buyer for their agricultural products.
8.
The Government has established Agricultural Universities to train the farming community
on new methods of cultivation. This has greatly helped the farmers to gain new
knowledge on cultivation.
(b)
Other stratergies:
9.
Crop rotation and multiple cropping methods may be adopted to conserve soil fertility.
These methods save the farmers in their gamble with monsoon rains.
10.
Biotechnology can be used to modify the process of agriculture in so as to get higher
yield in the output.
11.
Application of cost efficiency through the reduction of cost of production
without sacrificing the yield helps the farmers to reduce overall cost of
production.
Major crops cultivated in India.
India
is predominantly an agriculture country. Agriculture contributes significantly
to the National Income. At the same time Indian agriculture is completely
dependent on the vagaries of monsoon. Indian farmers gamble their fate with
monsoon every year. In spite of the vagaries of monsoon and lack of
modernization, Indian farmers cultivate varieties of crops such as paddy,
wheat, sugarcane, jute and cotton. Among these crops, paddy and wheat are the
major crops of India. Rice is the staple food for people living in southern
India and wheat is the staple food for the north Indians.
Industries
Manufacturing
means the process of conversion of raw materials into a more useful and
valuable articles with the help of artisans or machines. The basic principle of
manufacturing is that the more a material changed its form the greater will be
its value and utility. For instance, value and utility of mineral oil increases
only if it is converted into petro! or diesel. The industries that are involved
in the process of conversion of raw materials into finished products by means
of machines are called manufacturing industries. Availability of raw material,
electricity, labour and means of transport, nearness to the market, and
Government policies are the important factors that influence the localisation
of industries. Iron and steel industries are generally localised near the iron
mines or coalmines. Sugar industries are localised near the sugarcane
cultivation areas in order to prevent sugarcane from losing its weight before
conversion into sugar. Oil refineries use enormous quantity of crude oil
generally imported from Middle East countries. Import of crude and distribution
of finished product involve transportation. Therefore, oil refineries are
localised near harbours or ports. Consumer durable industries are localised
near the market place in order to save distribution cost. Government policies
such as regulations on banking, export benefits, regulations on land
conversions, tax concessions given to industries play an important role in
localisation of industries. For instance, export facilities and tax concessions
extended to the software industries by some state governments have influenced
the localisation of these industries in those states. Jute industry is
localised near the Hooghly river basin, cotton textile industry in western
India, iron and steel industry in Chotanagpur regions and sugar industry in the
Northern Great Plains. Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are the centers of industrial
production in India.
Agriculture and Industries of India : - Agriculture and Industries of India