Indian Agriculture : growing more from lessBy 2050, the global food demand for improved nutrition, to feed 9 billion population will increase significantly, esp. in countries like India where the population burden on land will be most. This means the world’s farmer will have to produce around 1.5% more grains every year continuously to achieve the 70% required increase in agriculture production in coming 40 years with same limited resources.

Agriculture touches virtually every aspects of our daily life. Today in India nearly 65% of population is dependent on agricultural output and contributes 17% (largest) to our GDP. Also at the same time, most of our best farmlands are already under cultivation and some of them are lost annually in urbanization, which may further adds fuel to rising prices of food linked commodities.

The real challenge lies in meeting demands of increasing agriculture output with limited natural resources. New technologies and their timely execution may significantly increase the agriculture productivity of limited available farmlands. Farms can grow more per acer, with increased crop cycles in a year to achieve rising demand for food consumption. Agri- Biotechnology, crop protection, better technology driven farming practices etc., will play a vital role in expanding our global capacity to produce resources that are used to feed and create other useful products.