Online published on 10 February, 2014.
The problems of agriculture in India are shared by many developing, densely populated countries, especially those located in the tropical belt of the planet. Due to rapid urbanisation, unsound agro-industrial policies and faulty practices, including the excessive reliance on groundwater pumping for irrigation and on environmentally deleterious, soil depleting chemical fertilisers and pesticides, the share of agriculture in India's GDP has steadily declined over the last three decades. Liberal reforms dictated by the IMF deprived farmers of much needed government support, prompting many to fall into a vicious cycle of indebtedness and cash crop monoculture, vulnerable to international price fluctuations. The Green Revolution launched in the sixties, “deskilled” farmers in many essential areas of traditional knowledge and heavily favoured large landholders with greater access to electricity, high yield seeds, machinery, subsidies and water.
