Importance of Indian Agriculture

India leads the world with its agricultural production!

Some amazing facts:

* India has the largest area in the world under pulse crops
* India is the first in the world to evolve a cotton hybrid.
* India has the world's highest percentage of arable land to the total geographical area, in the world.
* About 50% of India's geographical area is used for agricultural activity. With the spread of irrigation facilities, the introduction of high yielding variety of seeds and farm mechanization, the vulnerability of the Indian agricultural sector to the vagaries of the monsoons has declined, compared to earlier.
* About 80 percent of India's farmland is used to grow India's main foods--grains and pulses, the seeds of various pod vegetables, such as beans, chickpeas, and pigeon peas.
* India has the world's largest cattle and buffalo population. These animals are not butchered for meat, but farmers keep cattle and water buffaloes for plowing and for milk. Most commercial milk production comes from water buffaloes. Hides from cattle and water buffaloes are used for leather after the animals have died. Sheep are raised mostly for wool and sheepskin.
* Dairy accounts for nearly 26% of the total value of agricultural output. India has the world's second highest production of milk. India possesses 26 good breeds of cattle and six breeds of buffaloes. India's cattle is renowned the world over for its quality of endurance and resistance to tropical diseases.
* India grows more than half of the world's mangoes and leads all countries in the production of cashews, millet, peanuts, pulses, sesame seeds, and tea.
* The nation ranks second in the production of cauliflowers, jute, onions, rice, sorghum, and sugar cane.
* India is a major producer of apples, bananas, coconuts, coffee, cotton, eggplants, oranges, potatoes, rapeseeds, rubber, tobacco, and wheat.
* India is also the world's largest grower of betel nuts, which are palm nuts chewed as a stimulant by many people in tropical Asia. It is also a leading producer of such spices as cardamom, ginger, pepper, and turmeric.
* In terms of gross fertilizer consumption, India ranks fourth in the world, after the USA, the erstwhile USSR and China.
* India lives mainly in its villages, 600,000 of them.
* Agriculture provides livelihood to about 65% of India's labour force
* Agriculture contributes nearly 33% to India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
* Agriculture accounts for about 10% of India's exports.
* The farmers and their families use most of their crops. Half of all Indian farms are less than 2.5 acres (1 hectare) in area. Only 4 percent cover more than 25 acres (10 hectares). About two-thirds of the farmers in India own their own land. Most of their farms become smaller and smaller with each generation because of inheritance customs.