Allied Agriculture

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27-07-2020 By Admin

Important Current Affairs and schemes related to agriculture.

ALLIED AGRICULTURE

FISHERIES

Indian fisheries and aquaculture is an important sector of food production providing nutritional security, besides livelihood support and gainful employment to more than 14 million people.
India is the second largest fish producer in the world with a total production of 13.7 million metric tonnes in 2018-19, of which nearly 65% is from inland sector (E.g. Caltas, Rohus, Mrigals etc.) and 35% is from the marine sector. (E.g. Oil sardines, tunas, crabs, marine algae etc.)
Almost 50% of the total production is from culture fisheries and India’s production constitutes about 6.3% of the global fish production. The sector accounts for around 10% of the total exports and nearly 20% of the agricultural exports of the country.

The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed between the Department of Fisheries, Government of India, NABARD and the Government of Tamil Nadu for the implementation of Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF).
FIDF envisages creation of fisheries infrastructure facilities both in marine and inland fisheries sectors and augment the fish production to achieve the target of 15 million tonnes by 2020 set under the Blue Revolution.

It provides concessional finance to the eligible entities, cooperatives, individuals and entrepreneurs for development of identified fisheries infrastructure.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Cooperatives Development Corporation (NCDC) and all scheduled banks are Nodal Loaning entities (NLEs) to provide concessional finance under the FIDF.
The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying under the FIDF provides interest subvention up to 3% per annum for providing the concessional finance by the NLEs at the interest rate not lower than 5% per annum.

DAIRY SECTOR

India ranks first in milk production since 1998 accounting for 20 per cent of world production and with milk production of 176.3 million tonne in 2017- 18. India also has the largest bovine population in the world.
A government initiative known as Operation Flood (1970–1996) helped India to boost its milk production. India's milk production has grown by over 10 times since 1950.
According to National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) 70th round survey, more than one-fifth (23 per cent) of agricultural households with very small parcels of land (less than 0.01 hectare) reported livestock as their principal source of income.
As per 2018-19 Economic Survey, of the total milk produced in rural areas around 52% is the marketable surplus. o Of this surplus, about 36% of the milk sold is handled by the organized sector (evenly shared by Co-operative & Private Dairies) and the rest by the unorganized sector.
Budget 2020 aims to double the country’s milk processing capacity by 2025. (from 53.5 million tonne to 108 million tonne)
In India milk production is growing by 6.4% during the last 5 years and has increased from 146.3 million tonnes (mt) in 2014-15 to 187.7 mt in 2018-19.

Central government has made some changes in Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) scheme.

Government increased the interest subvention or subsidy on loans given to the dairy sector from 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
The funding period of the scheme is revised (earlier 2017-18 to 2019-20: now 2018-19 to 2022-23) and the repayment period has been extended up to 2030-31.
It also proposed to intensify the Quality Milk Programme for both cooperative and private sector with fund sharing basis to improve quality of milk.

LIVESTOCK

Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has released the 20th Livestock Census report.

It has been conducted periodically since 1919- 20 which covers all domesticated animals and its headcounts both in rural and urban areas.
20th Livestock Census was conducted in participation with all States and Union Territories.

This census is a unique attempt as for the first time a major initiative has been take to household level data through online transmission from the field.
National Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed a mobile Application software and was used for data collection as well as online transmission of data from the field to the NIC server.
Census has been designed to capture Breed-wise number of animals and poultry birds.

State-wise Uttar Pradesh (UP) has recorded highest livestock population in 2019 followed by Rajasthan, MP, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka and Gujarat.
In terms of cattle population, West Bengal figured at the top followed by UP, MP, Bihar and Maharashtra.
The Census is being conducted every 5 years.

Trends in the Census

The total Livestock population is 535.78 million in the country showing an increase of 4.6% over Previous Census.
Total Bovine population (Cattle, Buffalo, Mithun and Yak) is 302.79 Million in 2019 which shows an increase of 1.0% over the previous census.
The total number of cattle in the country is 192.49 million in 2019 showing an increase of 0.8 % over previous Census.

BEEKEEPING

Beekeeping Development Committee setup under the Chairmanship of Bibek Debroy recommended to recognize honeybees as inputs to agriculture and considering landless beekeepers as farmers.

Two domesticated species Indian or Asian honey bee and European honey bee (introduced in India in 20th century) and two wild speciesrock honey bee and dwarf honey bee.
The primary products of beekeeping are honey and wax, but pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom are also marketable primary bee products.
In 2017-18, China ranked first in honey production with 551 thousand tonnes while India ranked eighth among the world countries with 64.9 thousand tonnes.
In 2005, beekeeping has been included as a supplemental activity under National Horticulture Mission (NHM). There are multiple agencies like ICAR, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), National Bee Board (under Ministry of Agriculture) etc. dealing with beekeeping.

EDIBLE OIL DEFICIENCY

The Commerce ministry has asked the Agriculture ministry to prepare a road map for India to attain self-sufficiency in edible oil production.
India imports most of its edible oils from Indonesia and Malaysia. Moreover, Malaysia has a duty advantage over Indonesia under the India-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement.
Under the government’s plan to double farmers’ incomes, achieving self-sufficiency in oilseeds production by 2030 is a major target.
Also, the need for a “zero edible oil import” plan was discussed at an inter-ministerial meeting. Status of edible oil in India
Total edible oil production is just 7.31 million tonnes (mt). Estimated demand of edible oils in India is 24.5 mt.
So, total edible oil import account for 65-70% of the domestic requirements. In early 1990s, it was less than 5%.
India is third largest consumer of edible oil.
Total edible oil requirement by 2022 is estimated at 33.2 mt, assuming per capita consumption of about 22 kg per person a year, from 19 kg during 2015-16.
Palm oil forms a major share of the edible oil imported as well as consumed by Indians. Other major oils are- Soybean Oil and Mustard oil.
India is the fourth largest oil seed-producing country in the world after USA, China and Brazil. Currently, annual oilseed production from primary sources in India is around 34 mt.
The oilseeds accounts for 13% of the gross cropped area, 3% of the Gross National Product and 10% value of all agricultural commodities.

Major Oilseed producing states in India