ashwal
January 25th, 2008, 11:32 PM
There has been a major discussions on importance of Agriculture , no denying the fact we have been an Agric economy especially our community. But we need to re-look in our approach about agriculture as means of providing sustainable employment and wealth to people especially at cost of Industry.
Practically every-body is against land-acquisition or conversion of
farm-land into Industries etc. In all our states there are many agitations against land acquisition for power plant , steel plants or SEZ etc. Most of these movements are thriving on sentiment like loss of livlihood of poor farming community , our traditional view about land holding etc.
But lets look at a few facts ( image attached ) :-
This data is pertaining to countries which has fairly large population.
If you observe ,
1. Consistently Industry has been generating maximum per capita value in the economy Interestingly it is above service sector.
2. Agric per capita income improve if there less of % population engage in this sector , so thought of using agriculture to eradicate poverty/improve people std. of living seems to be far from reality. Industry is the way out to grow and generate wealth for larger masses and provide products and competitive price keeping inflation low and providing growth.
3 Among all the major economies we happen to be least industrialists in terms of creating major industrial base for consumer products and heavy machinery of good quality and industrial employment.
4. Majority of Eastern economies , importantly China inclusive , have actual ly grown via rapid industrialization leading to increase in per-capita , rapid export growth and fairly low inflation.
Also, Industry uses 2-3 land-mass , which is miniscule compared to Agriculture which uses 45-50 percent of Indian land mass. There would be some loss of some farming land , but this trade-off is worth every penny of it.
We have already lost many battles to the world in area of Industrialization , it is high time we have rapid industrial growth with efficient technology as the strongest focus area.
Practically every-body is against land-acquisition or conversion of
farm-land into Industries etc. In all our states there are many agitations against land acquisition for power plant , steel plants or SEZ etc. Most of these movements are thriving on sentiment like loss of livlihood of poor farming community , our traditional view about land holding etc.
But lets look at a few facts ( image attached ) :-
This data is pertaining to countries which has fairly large population.
If you observe ,
1. Consistently Industry has been generating maximum per capita value in the economy Interestingly it is above service sector.
2. Agric per capita income improve if there less of % population engage in this sector , so thought of using agriculture to eradicate poverty/improve people std. of living seems to be far from reality. Industry is the way out to grow and generate wealth for larger masses and provide products and competitive price keeping inflation low and providing growth.
3 Among all the major economies we happen to be least industrialists in terms of creating major industrial base for consumer products and heavy machinery of good quality and industrial employment.
4. Majority of Eastern economies , importantly China inclusive , have actual ly grown via rapid industrialization leading to increase in per-capita , rapid export growth and fairly low inflation.
Also, Industry uses 2-3 land-mass , which is miniscule compared to Agriculture which uses 45-50 percent of Indian land mass. There would be some loss of some farming land , but this trade-off is worth every penny of it.
We have already lost many battles to the world in area of Industrialization , it is high time we have rapid industrial growth with efficient technology as the strongest focus area.