Growth of Indian Agriculture: Performance and Challenges

In India, agriculture has experienced major systemic shifts in the context of a fall in GDP share from 30% in 1990-91 to 12.4% in 2010-11 and further to 11.8% in 2012-13. This suggests a change from conventional agrarian to service dominated. Despite this, India remains a largely agrarian economy, and agriculture is demographically the nation's largest economic field, with 58% of India's population relying on the sector for their livelihoods. Nevertheless, generating additional food with limited land and having household-level economic access to food to ensure food security will remain a major challenge for the country. With 60% of total food grains and oilseeds being grown in the Kharif season and just 35% of total arable area being irrigated, Indian agriculture is still heavily reliant on rainfall.