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Agriculture & Food Management

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Home/Indian Economy/Agriculture & Food Management

Mains Answer Writing Latest Questions

Suraj Singh
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Suraj SinghLearner
Asked: June 21, 2024In:
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Highlight the advantages of e-technology for farmers in India. Additionally, describe the actions the government has done in this regard. (Answer in 200 words)

upsc: e-technology for farmers
  1. Yash Sihare
    Yash Sihare Begginer
Tallya 1995
  • 3
Tallya 1995Begginer
Asked: July 9, 2024In: ,
  • 3

what are the benefits of artificial intelligence?

artificial intelligence
  1. Pristy Bright
    Pristy Bright Begginer

    Artificial intelligence (AI) offers numerous benefits across various fields: 1. Automation: AI automates repetitive tasks, freeing up human workers for more creative and strategic endeavors. 2. Decision Making: AI analyzes vast amounts of data quickly, helping businesses and organizations make inforRead more

    Artificial intelligence (AI) offers numerous benefits across various fields:

    1. Automation: AI automates repetitive tasks, freeing up human workers for more creative and strategic endeavors.

    2. Decision Making: AI analyzes vast amounts of data quickly, helping businesses and organizations make informed decisions.

    3. Efficiency: AI improves efficiency by streamlining processes and reducing errors, leading to cost savings and higher productivity.

    4. Personalization: AI powers personalized experiences, from shopping recommendations to tailored healthcare treatments.

    5. Innovation: AI fosters innovation by enabling the development of new products and services that were previously unimaginable.

    6. Safety: AI enhances safety in industries like healthcare and transportation through predictive maintenance and risk detection.

    7. Accessibility: AI can make services more accessible to people with disabilities, such as speech recognition for the visually impaired.

    In essence, AI improves our lives by augmenting human capabilities and solving complex problems efficiently.

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Panna Lal
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Panna LalBegginer
Asked: July 2, 2024In:
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How might nanofertilizers contribute to sustainable crop production in terms of both the environment and the economy? Describe your concerns about Indian farmers’ use of nanofertilizers. (Answer in 150 words)

upsc: technology missions in agriculture
  1. Priyakshi Saikia
    Priyakshi Saikia Begginer

    Nanofertilizers can enhance sustainable crop production by improving nutrient uptake efficiency, reducing the amount of fertilizer needed, and minimizing environmental pollution. Contribution of Nanofertilizers to Sustainable Crop Production: Environmental Benefits: Enhance nutrient uptake efficiencRead more

    Nanofertilizers can enhance sustainable crop production by improving nutrient uptake efficiency, reducing the amount of fertilizer needed, and minimizing environmental pollution.

    Contribution of Nanofertilizers to Sustainable Crop Production:

    Environmental Benefits:

    • Enhance nutrient uptake efficiency, reducing fertilizer runoff and pollution.
    • Decrease soil and water contamination, promoting healthier ecosystems.
    • Lower greenhouse gas emissions through more efficient nutrient use.

    Economic Benefits:

    • Reduce input costs by requiring smaller amounts of fertilizer.
    • Boost crop yields, increasing profitability for farmers.

    Concerns for Indian Farmers:

    • High initial costs could limit adoption.
    • Lack of awareness and proper training on usage.
    • Potential health and safety risks need thorough evaluation.
    • Essential need for regulatory frameworks to ensure safe and effective implementation.
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Bharti Singh
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Bharti SinghBegginer
Asked: June 19, 2024In:
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Describe the importance of forward and backward connections in the food processing sector. Talk about the difficulties of building strong connections in India as well. (Answer in 200 words)

upsc: food processing
  1. Preeti Singh
    Preeti Singh Begginer

    Linkages enhance the capability of the food processing industry to generate demand for the products of/in the other industries. They are mainly of two types: Backward Linkages: These linkages establish the connectivity of the food processing industry with sources of raw material supply. For example,Read more

    Linkages enhance the capability of the food processing industry to generate demand for the products of/in the other industries. They are mainly of two types:

    • Backward Linkages: These linkages establish the connectivity of the food processing industry with sources of raw material supply. For example, supply of raw material like tomatoes to a ketchup manufacturer.
    • Forward Linkages: These linkages establish the connectivity of the food processing industry with the markets through a distribution network consisting of physical infra like storages, road and rail network etc.

    Significance of backward and forward linkages

    • Direct link between farmers and food processors encourages and enables farmers to grow products of appropriate quality.
    • Removal of intermediaries helps the farmers fetch appropriate and remunerative return for their produce especially the marginal and medium farmers.
    • The establishment of cold storage facilities help to reduce the food wastage especially of perishable products with low shelf life like fruits, vegetables, dairy products etc.
    • Backward linkages ensure timely accessibility to raw materials and storage facilities for agri produce.
    • Similarly, connectivity with markets through distribution networks ensures timely delivery of food products to the consumer markets.
    • Maintaining high quality of products and creation of better infrastructure results in cost saving and enhanced efficiency.
    • These links among farmers, industry and consumers provide a level playing field for all stakeholders and enhance competitiveness.
    • It also helps to improve hygiene and food safety standards leading to greater acceptability of processed food domestically and in the international market.

    Challenges in establishing robust linkages

    • Due to fragmented land holdings, the marketable surplus is small and dispersed which makes it difficult for industry to timely procure quality raw materials.
    • High seasonality of raw material production limits the effective utilisation of linkages.
    • Large number of intermediaries and poor infrastructure facilities like cold storage, transport facilities, electricity etc. hinders backward and forward integration.
    • Highly fragmented and unorganised nature of food processing industry limits the capability to ensure an efficient supply chain across the industry.
    • Inadequacy of information with farmers and small processors and substandard levels of processing leads to compromise with the quality of products.
    • Multiplicity of legislation governing the food processing sector leads to contradictions in specifications, conflicting approach, lack of co-ordination and administrative delays.
    • Anomalies in domestic food laws with international food safety standards and under developed food testing network.

    To address these challenges, the government has launched the ‘Scheme for Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages’ for effective and seamless backward and forward integration by plugging the gaps in the supply chain. Under the scheme, financial assistance is provided for setting up of primary processing centers/ collection centers at farm gate and modern retail outlets at the front end. Furthermore, the government organised Mega International Food Submit and World Food India Hackathon to design solutions by leveraging technology for various problems in the food processing sector.

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Rajni Gautam
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Rajni GautamBegginer
Asked: June 26, 2024In:
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Draw attention to the difficulties in achieving the digital agriculture economy’s potential. Talk about the public-private partnership’s (PPP) significance in this context. (Answer in 250 words)

upsc: e-technology for farmers
  1. Lakshmi Devi
    Lakshmi Devi Begginer

    The spread of mobile technologies, remote-sensing services, and distributed computing is improving farmers' access to information, inputs, and markets, increasing production and productivity, streamlining supply chains, and reducing operational costs. According to a report by the Ministry of ElectroRead more

    The spread of mobile technologies, remote-sensing services, and distributed computing is improving farmers’ access to information, inputs, and markets, increasing production and productivity, streamlining supply chains, and reducing operational costs. According to a report by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and McKinsey & Company, India has a potential economic value of $50-65 billion through digital agriculture by 2025. However, there remain certain challenges in realizing the potential of digital agriculture in India. These include:

    • Lack of coherent data: Machine learning algorithms require large, indexed, and standardized data sets, which are currently scarce. For example, if one is developing an early pest detection solution using an image, then a large data set of images is needed.
    • Viability of technology: Digitization requires sensors, mechanization for precision farming, and connectivity, which are not viable for a majority of Indian farmers, as most of the farmers possess small and fragmented land holdings.
    • Cost-benefit analysis: Precise financial estimates of the cost of technology per unit of land/ per individual farmer and corresponding savings/return on investments are not available yet in the Indian context, which makes it doubly difficult to evaluate the technology from the perspective of economic aspects.
    • High capital requirement: Installation of digital technologies requires high capital cost, which would discourage its adoption among Indian farmers who remain constrained for credit.
    • Inadequate investments in agricultural R&D: In 2021-22, the Department of Agricultural Research and Education was allocated Rs 8,514 crore (out of Rs.1,31,531 crore for the Ministry) of which actual expenditure fell short (-10%) of allotment.

    The role PPP ecosystem is expected to play in addressing the associated challenges:

    • The emergence of a start-up ecosystem: Under a PPP model for agriculture, a start-up ecosystem can drive emerging technological innovations and agile business models, while universities and research institutions can bring in domain-level agricultural expertise and help validate the solutions for scaled deployments.
    • Increased productivity and profit: Studies suggest that farm-level digital advisory services can enhance productivity by 15%. There is also the potential for 40-60% of the agricultural surplus to be sold through digital marketplaces by 2025, reducing waste and helping improve farmer price realization by 10%. For instance, the E-Sahamathi initiative of Karnataka enables the sharing of agriculture and horticulture data from its database of more than 7 million farmers with start-ups/ service providers from its FRUITS (Farmer Registration and Unified Beneficiary Information System) platform.
    • Convergence with public institutions: The convergence of public institutions for digital services, in partnership with start-ups and industry, will help provide the benefits of technology to smallholding farmers in order to achieve better incomes and greater sustainability thereby making Indian agriculture globally competitive and remunerative for farmers.

    In this regard, the government of India 2021 launched an initiative to enable a multi-stakeholder ecosystem named IDEA (India Digital Ecosystem for Agriculture), which will open up infrastructure, data sets, academic and research expertise, and innovative policies in order to partner with a huge private ecosystem.

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Rajni Gautam
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Rajni GautamBegginer
Asked: June 26, 2024In:
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The emergence of climate change is contributing to the resurgence of millet farming. Talk about it. Mention the initiatives the government has taking to boost millet production in India as well. (Answer in 150 words)

upsc: cropping pattern
  1. Bhairavi Gauatam
    Bhairavi Gauatam Begginer

    The agricultural sector is one of the sectors most sensitive to climate change because the climate of a region determines the nature and characteristics of vegetation and crops. In such a situation, there is a need to look for crops, which can survive the ongoing climate change. In this context, theRead more

    The agricultural sector is one of the sectors most sensitive to climate change because the climate of a region determines the nature and characteristics of vegetation and crops. In such a situation, there is a need to look for crops, which can survive the ongoing climate change. In this context, the cultivation of millets is being revived owing to the following reasons:

    • Millets are hardy crops that can thrive in varying agro-climate regions and can withstand extreme temperatures and droughts. Some varieties of pearl millets survive at temperatures up to 46 degrees Celsius.
    • These crops help mitigate the effects of climate change through their lower carbon footprint per hectare as compared to wheat and rice.
    • Millets also require less water than rice, sugarcane, and wheat. They grow well in dry zones as rain-fed crops.
    • They grow well on poor soils as well. In many areas, millets are cultivated on grazing lands, which were unused for any other profitable work prior to this.
    • Their cultivation cost is lesser when compared to other crops since millets are mostly cultivated on natural farming-based techniques, eliminating a lot of other input costs.
    • Millets are called ‘famine reserves’ as they have a short growing season of 65 days and can be stored for two years or beyond.

    Moreover, climate change, which is now impacting agricultural production and food stability, threatens nutritional security as well. In this context, millets gain importance as they act as rich sources of macronutrients and micronutrients, with high levels of calcium, iron, zinc, potassium, protein, and essential amino acids. They are non-glutinous and rich in antioxidants as well. India currently has around 14 million hectares of land under millet cultivation. Further, according to the fourth advance estimates for the year 2021-22, about 16 million tonnes of millet have been produced in India, which is about 5 percent of the national food grain basket. Considering the benefits, various steps have been taken by the government to promote millet cultivation, including:

    • Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millet Promotion (INSIMP), which was launched in 2011-12 to promote millets as “Nutri-cereals” and enhance India’s nutritional security. It is a part of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.
    • The government declared 2018 as the National Year of Millets and launched the Millet Mission as part of the National Food Security Mission, which has led to the promotion of technological interventions, improvement in seed quality, and a minimum support price (MSP).
    • Integrated Cereals Development Programmes in Coarse Cereals under Macro Management of Agriculture scheme to increase the overall productivity under specific crop-based systems.
    • The government allowed the inclusion of “nutri- cereals” in the Public Distribution System (PDS) and the Mid-Day Meal scheme.
    • State governments have launched several schemes to give an impetus to the production of millets, such as the Odisha Millets Mission.

    With 2023 being the UN-designated International Year of Millets, there is a need to promote and strengthen the value chain for millets and millet-based products, including the ready-to-eat category. Millets are being increasingly recognized as climate-smart crops with enormous nutritional and health benefits.

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Rajeshwari Meena
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Rajeshwari MeenaBegginer
Asked: July 2, 2024In:
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What impact has climate change had on India’s productivity and agricultural output? Do you believe that climate savvy water-saving agritechnologies are now essential? (Answer in 150 words)

upsc: technology missions in agriculture
  1. Sita mata
    Sita mata Begginer

    Climate change events like erratic monsoon patterns, heat stress due to temperature extremes, changes in pest and disease patterns, reduced water availability, etc. affect agricultural production and productivity. According to a study by the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture, raiRead more

    Climate change events like erratic monsoon patterns, heat stress due to temperature extremes, changes in pest and disease patterns, reduced water availability, etc. affect agricultural production and productivity. According to a study by the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture, rain fed rice yields in India are projected to reduce by less than 2.5% in 2050 and 2080 and irrigated rice yields by 7% in 2050 and 10% in 2080 scenarios. Further, wheat yields are projected to reduce by 6-25% and maize yields by 18-23% in 2100.
    To meet the challenges posed by climate change, while also meeting food and energy needs in an environmentally and socially sustainable way, climate smart water saving agri-technologies are becoming popular around the globe.
    This is due to their significance in the following ways:

    • Adapting to climate change: Climate smart water saving agri-technologies help to improve water management practices, using which farmers can maintain crop productivity even under changing climatic conditions.
    • Water conservation: Irrigation can be improved through micro irrigation, mulching, use of water absorbents, etc. to maintain soil moisture. The use of these water-saving irrigation practices reduces the consumption of water by 25-85 percent.
    • Saving energy: Renewable energy can be used as an alternative, especially for petroleum products used for on-farm irrigation pumps. It may also lead to reduced greenhouse gas emissions from such conventional on-farm irrigation pumps. For example, use of solar water pumps and solar sprays.
    • Sustainable resource management: Climate smart water saving agri-technologies promote sustainable management of water resources. These technologies can minimise the dependency on groundwater, thus ensuring its sustainable use. In this regard, India is the largest user of groundwater in the world with over 60 percent of irrigated agriculture and 85 percent of drinking water supplies dependent on aquifers.
    • Enhanced crop yield: Water saving technology like sub-surface irrigation can be used to enhance water-use efficiency, as it uses a buried diffuser that supplies water directly to the root zone and is 15-20 per cent more efficient than drip irrigation, thus enhancing crop productivity.
    • Reduced input costs: These technologies can help reduce labour costs for farmers, thus lowering the input cost. Once installed, they require very little labour to operate, allowing farmers to focus on other tasks such as crop management and harvesting.

    Though climate-smart water-saving agri-technologies are significant, their implementation and widespread adoption face several challenges like cost and affordability, lack of awareness about these technologies, etc. It is necessary to make these technologies available, accessible and affordable for farmers. Also, an integrated approach needs to be implemented in agricultural water management through adoption of innovative measures such as water harvesting, micro-irrigation and resource conservation farming to increase water-use efficiency in agriculture.

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Rajeshwari Meena
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Rajeshwari MeenaBegginer
Asked: July 2, 2024In:
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What role do women play in India’s cattle rearing industry? What problems do women in India’s cattle industry currently face? (Answer in 150 words)

upsc: economics of animal-rearing
  1. Sita mata
    Sita mata Begginer

    The livestock sector is one of the most rapidly growing components of the rural economy of India, accounting for 5% of national income and 28% of agricultural GDP in 2018-19. In the last six years, the livestock sector grew at 7.9% (at constant prices) while crop farming grew by 2%. Livestock contriRead more

    The livestock sector is one of the most rapidly growing components of the rural economy of India, accounting for 5% of national income and 28% of agricultural GDP in 2018-19. In the last six years, the livestock sector grew at 7.9% (at constant prices) while crop farming grew by 2%. Livestock contribute significantly to the income of poor households, particularly the income controlled by women, and enables poor and landless women to earn income using common-property resources.
    Contribution of women to livestock rearing in India

    • Women constitute about 69% of the workforce engaged in the livestock sector. In tribal populated states of India such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha etc. their (women) share comes to around 90%.
    • Women accounted for 31% of all members of dairy producer cooperatives in 2020-21.
      • In India, the number of women’s dairy cooperative societies rose from 18,954 in 2012 to 32,092 in 2015-16.
      • There were five million women members in dairy co-operatives in 2015-16, and this increased further to 5.4 million in 2020-21.
    • Women play an important role in activities dealing with livestock such as care and management or transformation and marketing of certain livestock products.
      • They are also involved in milk production, although not all women control the sale of milk and its products
      • Women are typically responsible for milking ewes, providing feed/fodder and water, caring for newborn lambs/kids and sick animals.
      • Young girls are also involved in the grazing of goats and sheep.
    • Furthermore, livestock ownership patterns especially for small stock and poultry appear more equitable than that of other assets like land, capital, and knowledge.

    Issues faced by women in the livestock sector in India

    • Lack of gender-disaggregated data: Recent employment surveys such as the Periodic Labour Force Survey fail to collect data on women engaged in livestock rearing. This makes them invisible to policymakers.
    • Lack of access to credit & capital: Women in poor households, without collateral to offer to banks, find it difficult to avail loans to purchase livestock.
    • Limited access to extension services: The reach of extension services to women livestock farmers remains scarce owing to distance and cost factors.
    • Lack of technical knowledge: Women livestock farmers lack technical knowledge on choice of animals (breeding) and veterinary care as men invariably perform these specific tasks and take animals for artificial insemination.
    • Lack of decision making powers: Women are usually not aware of the composition and functions of dairy boards as men exercised decisions even in women-only dairy cooperatives. Further, the voice of women from landless or poor peasant Scheduled Caste households was rarely heard.

    In view of these challenges, it is pertinent to ensure that women are included in every stage of decision-making and development of the livestock sector and their invisibility in the official statistics is corrected.

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Sahithi Alugoju
  • 2
Sahithi AlugojuBegginer
Asked: July 9, 2024In:
  • 2

Technology can be used in farming like using drones for sprinkling pesticides and fertilizers, Using Iot to check crop health, machine learning for prediction. How to bring awareness to farmers on the use of technology in farming. How can we ...

question
  1. Akash Pandat
    Akash Pandat Begginer

    The question is how can we actually promote the technical advancement in farming and I would like to share my suggestion if you want promote any thing the best way of promote anything you use social media and advertising that also how you use and there benefits if farmers feel benifits on it they alRead more

    The question is how can we actually promote the technical advancement in farming and I would like to share my suggestion if you want promote any thing the best way of promote anything you use social media and advertising that also how you use and there benefits if farmers feel benifits on it they also use technical advancement in farming

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Shekhar jaat
  • 0
Shekhar jaatBegginer
Asked: June 26, 2024In:
  • 0

Talk about how inadequate grain management—rather than a real grain scarcity—has posed a bigger threat to India’s food security. (Answer in 150 words)

upsc: storage transport & marketing in agriculture
  1. Yash Kashyap
    Yash Kashyap Begginer

    While India produces enough food grains to feed its population, inadequate management of these grains is a greater threat to food security than actual shortages. India now has storage capacity for only 47% of its total food grain production. The Food Corporation of India (FCI), the primary body respRead more

    While India produces enough food grains to feed its population, inadequate management of these grains is a greater threat to food security than actual shortages. India now has storage capacity for only 47% of its total food grain production.

    The Food Corporation of India (FCI), the primary body responsible for purchase, storage, and distribution, faces a number of challenges:

    • Inadequate and improper storage facilities leading to significant wastage, estimated at Rs. 50,000 crore annually
    • Leakages and diversion of food grains through the Public Distribution System (PDS)
    • Inclusion and exclusion errors in identifying beneficiaries
    • Fake and bogus ration cards

    To solve this issue, the government has created programs such as the Private Entrepreneurship Guarantee (PEG) to increase storage capacity. However, more work is needed to upgrade storage infrastructure, improve supply chain management, and increase PDS efficiency.

    Addressing these management difficulties is critical to ensuring food security for India’s vast population, especially as the government seeks to increase agricultural productivity and adapt to climate change.

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