National Farmers Day or Kisan Diwas is celebrated every year on December 23. It is birth anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh, former Prime Minister of India.
History
Contribution of Chaudhary Charan Singh in field of agriculture was enormous. We are reaping benefits of his actions till date.
He was the man who glorified farmers and provided them true voice in the country.
In 2001, Indian government decided to mark birth anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh as National Farmer’s Day. Since then it is celebrated every year.
In the wake of today’s celebration let’s look at how farmers are changing agricultural landscape of India.
Data on Agriculture
Farmers play an important role in Indian economy. Nearly 70% of rural households across India are dependent on agriculture.
According to Economic Survey of India 2020-21, share of agriculture in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been 20% and it is highest in the last seventeen years.
Farmers have been resilient even in adverse times like Covid-19 pandemic and met the demand of fruits, vegetables, food grains and other agricultural produce. Their constant efforts reflected a positive result. When all other sectors observed a downfall, agriculture sector showed a growth of 3.4% in 2020-21.
In 2019, share of agriculture in GDP was 17.8%. The numbers increased to 19.9% in 2020.
Significance of Agriculture
Farmers play a pivotal role in a country where population is huge and problem of food security can occur very easily. Continuous supply of staples like wheat, pulses, rice and vegetables enabled the government to focus primarily on health care in 2020.
Agriculture sector not only has a fair share in India’s GDP, but it is an important source of employment in the country. It creates jobs and self-employment opportunities in the country.
Recent Advances in Agriculture
Recently, India has seen many startups like Future Farm (Chennai), Urban Kisaan (Hyderabad), Letcetra Agritech (Goa). They are using modern technology to practice agriculture in sustainable way. These small businesses are also exporting their produce to many countries around the world.
Results have shown that farmers are progressive and they are adopting advance technologies to optimize the outputs in agriculture.
