”Erratic monsoon’ and ‘low productivity’ are the major problems of Indian agriculture.” Substantiate the statement.

Erratic Monsoon:

•Irrigation covers only about a third of the cultivated area in India, and so crop production in rest of cultivated land directly depends on rain.

•Even the canal water supply for irrigation is adversely affected by poor performance of Southwest Monsoon.

•In addition, rainfall in certain drought-prone areas is too meagre and highly unreliable.

•Even the areas are receiving high annual rainfall experience considerable fluctuations.

•Drought and floods are a common phenomena in the low rainfall areas.

•Thus, the fact that both irrigated as well as non-irrigated cultivated land depends on the monsoon for water as well as the erratic nature of the monsoon, makes Indian agriculture productivity highly susceptible to the elements of nature. Hence, a consistent product output is a difficult proposition for Indian agriculture.

Low Productivity:

•In India, the yield of various crops is low compared to the international level.

•Per hectare output of most of the crops such as rice, wheat, cotton and oilseeds in India is much lower than that of the U.S.A., Russia and Japan.

•Moreover, with very high pressure on the land resources, the labour productivity in Indian agriculture is also very low compared to international level.