AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY

The rate of production of agricultural goods in a unit period of time is called as Agricultural
Productivity.

In more simple terms, the production of flowers, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, millets, tubers, corms, roots, leaves, herbs and other agricultural products in unit period of time(say one season or one year), is called as Agricultural Productivity.

About 85 major crops are grown in the world. Some farms provide raw materials for industry: like fibre, natural rubber, castor oil, linseed oil, tobacco etc. These agricultural products support greater part of the
world economy.

But human activities leading to soil degradation, pollution, encroachment on agricultural lands, wetlands, mangroves etc. have posed seriously bad impacts on agricultural production and economics of the world.

DECLINE IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY – SOME BITTER FACTS

1. Two –third of the world’s agricultural land has been degraded. About 1.2 billion poorest people
of the world inhabit those lands. They work hard. Still the agricultural productivity is very low in
those areas.https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2021/december/slowing-productivity-reduces-growth-in-global-agricultural-output/

2. The declining land productivity in many cases has forced people to encroach on forests, grasslands and wetlands. These conditions cause further degradation of environment and decline in agricultural productivity.

3. Climatic variations and human activities are causing droughts, land degradation and desertification. As per reports of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) 2000 , about 3600 million hectare or 70% of the world’s dry land are degraded. https://www.fao.org/resources/digital-reports/disasters-in-agriculture/en/

4. Africa, Asia and small island states are facing serious economic losses due to land degradation caused by declining productivity of land due to climate change. Agricultural productivity declines considerably due to floods and the climatic change. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2935125/

5. The degradation of land, Siltation of rivers, pollution of soil from acid rains and industrial wastes are some of the issues that are associated with urbanisation and industrialization that are strong causes of land degradation and decline in agricultural productivity.

6. As per estimates of Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) , about 1.96 million hectare of land has been degraded by industry and urbanisation. Urbanisation has also caused damages to urban agriculture on public and private lands.

7. For example about 30% of the Russian Federation’s food is produced on 3 per cent of land in sub urban areas. The United States lost 400,000 hectare of farm land and China has lost up to 5 million hectares of farm land due to urbanisation. All these conditions have put tremendous impact on agriculture and decline in economy.

8. Most of the biodiversity loss has occurred during 20th century. According to FAO’s reports, out of traditionally cultivated 7000 species for food, only 120 are being cultivated today. All these declines in agricultural productivity reflect human activities pertaining to carelessness and exploitation.

CAUSES OF DECLINE IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY

Following are the causes of the decline in Agricultural Productivity –

1. With the explosion in human population the agricultural land has gradually been converted
into residential and industrial areas.

2. The need of production of more and more food forced people to go for commercial and
extensive agriculture. These practices caused serious depletion of nutrients causing loss in the
agricultural productivity.

3. The agricultural production was to be boosted up by the application of synthetic chemical
fertilizers and crops were protected from pests and diseases by the applications of pesticides and
fungicides. All these synthetic chemicals caused permanent losses in the further productivity of
agriculture by causing degradation of lands.

4. Vast areas of productive land are destroyed by heavy mining and quarrying.

5. Frequent floods due to siltation of rivers caused by soil erosion often leads to damage of the
top soil at certain places causing serious soil degradation leading further to serious losses of
agricultural productivity.

6. Erratic rainfall induced by human activities causes frequent drought conditions that further
leads to causing crop failures and damages to the agricultural productivity.

7. The current practice of planting commercial varieties of trees on agricultural land instead of
growing food crops is leading to serious losses to agricultural productivity.

EFFECTS OF DECLINE IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY

1. The decline in Agricultural Productivity is causing hunger in major parts of the world. In spite of great improvements in the food production about half million people are still starving across the world.

2. It has become evident that the Agricultural Productivity has become a driving force for economic and social developments. According to the International Atomic Agency- ‘When agriculture fails sources of income are lost. Social ties are disrupted and as a result, societies become more mobile.’

3. The decline in the productivity of the land under poor farmers created regional disparities.

4. The Green Revolution was launched to enhance food production but only the rich farmers could derive benefits out of it. The poor could not afford heavy prices of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Thus they remained hungry and economically backward in comparison to the rich.

5. Application of synthetic fertilizers and poisonous pesticides degraded the productivity of soil seriously. Thus the land even under the rich farmers no longer remained productive. These conditions are causing seriously bad impacts on the agricultural production during current times leading to a setback to the national economy.

6. The decline in agricultural productivity is causing distress among farmers. They used to take
loans from local money lenders & banks to purchase more and more agrochemicals to boost up the
production. Unfortunately natural calmities ruin the crop & the already degraded land too, could not
support the production. As such farmers fell into a DEBT TRAP and commited suicide when their all
credit sources.

7. The decline in agricultural productivity has no longer left the agriculture profitable activity for general farmers. Hence, large scale migration of people from rural areas towards cities is increasing day by day. It is further causing urban congestions, expansion of slums and encroachments on government lands.

EFFORTS TO RECOVER THE LOSS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND TO IMPROVE THE ECONOMY

The loss of Agricultural Economy can be recovered so as to improve the economy through following measures :
(i) Improvement of Land by the application of organic fertilizers, by plantation and by control on overgrazing.

(ii) Lesser dependence on agro-chemicals

(iii) Adoption of methods of crop-rotation, mixed-cropping etc.,

(iv) Adoption of proper methods of irrigation. etc.

(v) Application of Green Manure.

Must read: Conservation Agriculture – principles , benefits & problems