Improving Agricultural Productivity is Efficient Farm Management. Agricultural productivity is a big concept with a global impact, but it starts with efficient on-farm management. How productive or efficient our global food production systems can become will significantly impact our future well-being. The agriculture sector is one of the most important industries in the Indian economy. In terms of employment, the agriculture sector provides livelihood to over 151 million people. Approximately 60 percent of the Indian population works in the industry, contributing about 18 percent to India's GDP. Soil fertility is one of the most important factors in crop production. It has the ability to support crop production determined by the entire spectrum of its physical, chemical and biological attributes.

Agriculture plays an essential role in the process of economic development of less developed countries like India. Besides providing food to nation, agriculture releases labour, provides saving, contributes to market of industrial goods. Almost half of the population of India indulged in agriculture. The agriculture sector holds an important place in the economy. A few of the important points are: Agriculture provides employment opportunities to rural agricultural and non-agricultural labourers. Agriculture is an important sector of Indian economy as it contributes about 17% to the total GDP and provides employment to over 60% of the population. Indian agriculture has registered impressive growth over last few decades. Agricultural progress is essential to provide food for growing non-agricultural labour force, raw materials for industrial production and saving and tax revenue to support development of the rest of the economy, to earn foreign exchange and to provide a growing market for domestic manufactures. It is, after all, considered as the backbone of the economy. It forms the basis for food and nutrition security and provides raw materials for industrialization. The Key to Improving Agricultural Productivity is Efficient Farm Management. Agricultural productivity is a big concept with a global impact, but it starts with efficient on-farm management. How productive or efficient our global food production systems can become will significantly impact our future well-being. For improving the production, land reforms are the first and predominant point. Machines, tractors, and implements do land reforms. These machines have the qualities that make rugged farming areas smooth to work on the field efficiently. Working on the field is easy, that means an improvement in productivity is easy. Agriculture is the most significant source of income for the central and state governments. The government of the country has substantial revenue from rising land revenue. Agriculture plays a critical role in the entire life of a given economy. Agriculture is the backbone of the economic system of a given country. In addition to providing food and raw material, agriculture also provides employment opportunities to a very large percentage of the population. Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural outputs to inputs. While individual products are usually measured by weight, which is known as crop yield, varying products make measuring overall agricultural output difficult.

Dear Dr Swaminathan C., Thank you for your contribution to the discussion.

Agricultural progress is essential to provide food for growing non-agricultural labour force, raw materials for industrial production and saving and tax revenue to support development of the rest of the economy, to earn foreign exchange and to provide a growing market for domestic manufactures. Agriculture sector in India holds the record for second-largest agricultural land in the world generating employment for about half of the country's population. Thus, farmers become an integral part of the sector to provide us with means of sustenance. Agriculture is an important sector of Indian economy as it contributes about 17% to the total GDP and provides employment to over 60% of the population. Indian agriculture has registered impressive growth over last few decades. Agriculture plays a major role in economic growth and development. As the provider of food it is a cornerstone of human existence. As a furnisher of industrial raw materials it is an important contributor to economic activity in other sectors of the economy.Indian agriculture is multifaceted, with horticulture and animal husbandry contributing to over 60% of India's agricultural GDP. India is the largest milk producer, ranks 2nd in vegetables and fruits, 3rd in fish, egg and poultry production in the world.The key to improving agricultural productivity is efficient farm management. Agricultural productivity is a big concept with a global impact, but it starts with efficient on-farm management. How productive or efficient our global food production systems can become will significantly impact our future well-being. For improving the production, land reforms are the first and predominant point. Machines, tractors, and implements do land reforms. These machines have the qualities that make rugged farming areas smooth to work on the field efficiently. Working on the field is easy, that means an improvement in productivity is easy and seeds are the most important input for agricultural productivity. Agriculture plays a critical role in the entire life of a given economy. Agriculture is the backbone of the economic system of a given country. In addition to providing food and raw material, agriculture also provides employment opportunities to a very large percentage of the population.

We have been using improved technologies related to agriculture since long but region specific adoption behaviour of those technologies are not up to the mark. More than 70 percent of rural Indian household directly or indirectly engaged in the agricultural sector. To develop these large section of population and as whole major contributors of national GDP we should focus on target group specific agricultural approaches. Moreover considering the food security and healthy wellbeing, there is huge need for sustainable agricultural approach with modern technologies and indigenous knowledge.

I agree with Biswajit Pal that agricultural productivity is a big concept with a global impact, but it starts with efficient on-farm management. How productive or efficient our global food production systems can become will significantly impact our future well-being. Productivity measures the quantity of output produced with a given quantity of inputs. Long term productivity growth reflects improvements in farmers' production efficiency and technological progress. Agricultural production can be also be increased by improving irrigational facilities and using fertilizers. Crop genetic improvement, by GM or conventional approaches, is only one of many methods that can be used to improve crop performance. Others involve improvements in farm practices, irrigation, and drainage, and herbicide, pesticide and fertilizer use. The level of productivity in a country, industry, or enterprise is determined by a number of factors. These include the available supplies of labour, land, raw materials, capital facilities, and mechanical aids of various kinds. The productivity in India is quite low due to the large population size of the country. Other factors like lack of proper infrastructure and institutions, lack of modern technology, and lack of good irrigation facilities also contribute to low productivity. Average farm size, poor infrastructure, low use of farm technologies and best farming techniques, decrease of soil fertility due to over fertilization and sustained pesticide use, are leading contributors to low agricultural productivity. The most important contribution of agriculture is to provide food supply to increasing population of the countries of the world. Raising supply of foods by agriculture sector has, therefore, great importance for economic growth of a country. Agriculture is the mainstay of Indian economy because about 60% of our population depends directly or indirectly on agriculture and it provides raw materials to the industries. India earns foreign exchange by exporting agricultural products and agriculture contributes about 29% to the Gross Domestic Product. Private sector where the agriculture sector comes into the picture since it is the most important and largest sector of the Indian economy.