India is the second populous country in the world, and its population is increasing.

But the
agricultural land is decreasing as the industrial corridors, and infrastructure development
projects are using the some of the farming areas. To provide food for all in future, we need to
include the agriculture sector in the overall growth strategy. Growth in agriculture sector can be
better utilization of land, efficient use of water, automation, educating the farmers, producing
better grains, a better connection of farming area with the market.

More than 50% of our population in India is earning their livelihood via agriculture directly or
indirectly. Growth strategy in this sector will impact these people directly- increasing overall
household income while living in their native places which will retrain people to migrate to cities
in search of jobs. As the part of growth strategy, farmers need to be educated about how to
increase production in the same land, how to use automation, how to better utilize water. Better
productivity will not only provide food security to all but also it will help in the growth of food
processing industry. Once the necessary level of development is achieved, more private players
will be interested in investing not only in food processing but also may be in farming itself. All
these strategies will help farmers to be self-sustainable which will reduce the pressure on the
government in future. Moreover, better utilization of water will solve the future water crisis.

The agriculture sector is contributing only 17% to the GDP of India, which indicates that
government needs to invest heavily in this sector to see an overall growth in GDP. The investment
goes more like a subsidy to the farmers, so the government does not have any possible income
whereas infrastructure development projects provide income opportunities to the state. In
general, infrastructure development projects are concentrated in some part of India whereas the
agricultural development projects should be implemented throughout India. Along with that, the
fragmented landholding among the farmers makes it a daunting job to achieve any growth target.

Although the implementation of a growth strategy for agriculture is a tough job, for the overall
growth of the Indian society, the government should find a balance between infrastructure and
farming. Infrastructure growth will connect farmers with a competitive market whereas
agricultural growth will help to produce better quality grains.