On the back of productivity enhancement schemes and area expansions, India is now shifting from food crops to cash crops. The production of commercial or cash crops has increased by about 4065 thousand tonne. According to the information provided by the Minister of State (MoS) for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Ramnath Thakur in the Rajya Sabha, India’s production of commercial crops soared from 4,80,692 thousand tonne in the agriculture year 2021-22 to 4,84,757 thousand tonne in the agriculture year 2023-24.
As per the third advance estimate 2023-24 released by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare the total area under the cash crops has gone up from 18,214.19 thousand hectares in the agriculture year 2021-22 to 18,935.22 thousand hectares in the agriculture year 2023-24, marking an increase of 721.03 thousand hectares. The cash crops stated here include sugarcane, cotton, jute and mesta.
The Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare runs the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) to increase food grain production. Under the mission, farmers are given various assistance such as cluster demonstrations on improved package of practices, cropping systems, plant protection measures, nutrient management and distribution of high-yielding variety seeds, as per the MoS.
The Niti Aayog working group report 2018 projected the demand and supply of food grains to the tune of 337.01 million tonne (MT) and 386.25 MT, respectively, for 2032-33, indicating a comfortable position as far as food security is concerned.
As far as the area under commercial crops is concerned, in 2023-24, Maharashtra topped the list with 5671.49 thousand hectares of cash crops area out of the total food grain area of 10727.83 thousand hectares in the state. Gujarat secured the second spot with 2884.94 thousand hectares area under cash crops, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 2530 thousand hectares, the data presented by the MoS revealed.
To improve the health of the soil and increase production levels, the Centre introduced the soil health and fertility scheme in 2015. Under this, soil health cards (SHCs) are issued to farmers which encourage the appropriate use and dosage of fertilisers. They provide details on the nutrient status of the soil. So far, 24.17 crore SHCs have been issued to farmers. To educate farmers regarding the proper use of fertilisers, over 6.8 lakh demonstrations, 93,781 farmer’s training programmes and 7,425 farmer’s mela (fairs) have been organised by the Centre.
In addition to this, through its price policy, the Centre ensures the remunerative prices to farmers for their produce to encourage higher investment and production, along with safeguarding the interests of the consumers, the MoS stated.
