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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.

dndeswal
January 26th, 2008, 08:31 PM
There has been a major discussions on importance of Agriculture .....

Practically every-body is against land-acquisition or conversion of
farm-land into Industries etc. ....

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.



Industrialisation is a reality and must be discussed. But the pertinent question is the location of industries. A sound logic does exist behind being against land-acquisition for SEZs in fertile lands. Is it fair to set up big plants in the vicinity of Capital which is already under stress of huge population, water and power? We should also focus on agro-based industries such as sugar mills, food processing plants and tin-food, cold storage for fruit and vegetables, warehousing of grains, flour mills and other grain-powders – the list is endless. There is no harm in setting up some small industrial plants in states like Punjab, Haryana etc. where agriculture is the main industry. But setting up huge SEZs should be avoided as, by doing so, we are sacrificing our main industry (agriculture) forever. Fortunately, India has enough barren lands such as in Madhya Pradesh, where SEZs or big industries could be set up.

Maruti was set up in Gurgaon some decades ago, despite public protests and expert opinion. Despite sacrificing this rich agricultural plot at the altar of car industry, this factory is not giving enough employment to the local population. Had this vast car-factory been established somewhere in a barren, rocky land in Central India, this precious agricultural land could have been saved. Delhi itself has tasted the side-effects of its own medicine – it gave licences to industries and ultimately, after some years, the Court had to direct the Government to shut these industries and locate these elsewhere, outside the city. Now, these Delhi factories are being relocated in fertile lands of rural Delhi !

China has been very cautious in locating its SEZs – due care was taken to establish these in unfertile or barren lands. Whatever is being preached by Western economics, the fact remains that we need foodgrains to feed our huge population. Foodgrains and milk etc. are produced on fertile lands, not inside these huge factories !
.

rohittewatia
January 28th, 2008, 01:59 AM
Rightly pointed out by Deswal Sir, we have a huge population to feed...we should not think about forgetting agriculture...without it...there is no way...First n foremost things are food n water...n let's talk about this recent industrialization...

Recently, it was mentioned by our President in some speech...that the recent developments in the country hasn't changed much for the poor people, specially the people living below poverty line...Only to make matters worse, it led to inflation of prices....so...making it even difficult for them to survive.

Do u really think that cutting the agriculture will help the economy? I mean whose economy are we concerned about here?