Sustainable Farming Through Commercial Aquaponics In India

For a country that is predominantly agrarian – and employing directly and indirectly – over 60 percent of its active working population, the lack of a comprehensive vision and innovation in the agriculture sector is unfortunate.

- Anubhav Das

As per the data, our farm output growth rate has been fluctuating between 0.2 - 4.2 percent for the last five years. While in quantities of produce, we may be in the top few producers across the world, but our yields per hectare are amongst the lowest. In 2017, India was the second largest producer of tomatoes in the world after China. China produced 56.8 million tonnes of tomatoes on about 110,000 hectares of land. Whereas, India produced 18.7 million tonnes at about 10 percent less land. The productivity for both countries per hectare is incomparable and this fact goes across multiple crops.

With large-scale interventions, huge subsidies on fertilisers and inputs and a supportive government policy framework, India’s agricultural output is lacklustre. Given the current performance, there are tough questions that need to be asked such as:

Will farm output be able to keep up with the demands of the growing population?

Will our farm produce be able to offer the quality that is essential for healthy living?

Will farming ever modernise?

Will our farms be able to help protect the planet by saving valuable and scarce resources?

What will it take for India’s farm sector to change?

And therein lays the solution. Change is very much needed in the agriculture sector. Status quo will get us nowhere. For a nation that employed a majority of its population and indeed got a large part of its GDP from agriculture since Independence – the focus of development right from the start missed the bulls-eye. After 70 years, our farm holdings are smaller than before, and 65 percent of our crops are dependent on monsoons.

It’s Time to Bring About a Change