Adopt Hydroponics to get better yield
Adopt Hydroponics to get better yield
Throughout our schooling we have been taught that India has an agriculture-dependent economy, or that agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy, today, however, there is some disconnect with this statement. Our government has come to realize that agriculture is not serving the nation and developmental goals very well and has hence looked at other ways of increasing employment and inclusiveness. Before we jump into this topic please read these few stats that will help paint an image of the state of affairs in the Indian agriculture sector. We can start with employment, the profession of agriculture and its allied industries employees more than 50 % of Indians employable workforce. this makes agriculture a very important driver of our economy. The other problem with such a large mass of people involved in agriculture promotes very cut-throat pricing strategies where the only differentiator is the price due to which farmers are barely able to recover their investment cost.
The second major issue is the average land holding size in India which as per the agriculture census is on average under 1 hectare, of the total holding over 85% is held by small farmers who have no access to new technologies, high-quality inputs, credit etc. this number is set to cross the 91% mark. This small land holding size is leading to a steady decline in profitability of the farming sector. Yield per acre for farming in India is lower than China, the US, and Europe by a wide margin. Even though we are major producers of a variety of food items across the world. A new avenue that the govt should explore is hydroponics this allows farmers with small land holding size to improve their productivity while at the same time renders them immune to vagarities of the weather. This allows farmers to build a sustainable source of income, with a little help from the government in ensuring market support prices, the farmer can avail of credit facilities to set up the entire farm. High-quality inputs can be provided at a subsidized rate so that the farmers don’t try to improve profitability by cutting cost by opting for lower quality inputs. This allows for 2 things an improvement in the quality of the product as well as the consistency by which we can produce the same.
This will allow for the decrease in price fluctuation allowing for the farmers to make more constant returns, which improves their creditworthiness and also their bankability. Currently, there are 30+ hydroponics plants in India that are using hydroponics equipment that is indigenously designed and built. This is an indication that the technology has already entered India and is in its nascent stages. Over the technology will only become cheaper Today there are already a number of hydroponics companies in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad etc.
