Page 618 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

Agriculture & Food Management 245

Mechanization and Crop Residue Management

7.36 To increase availability of equipments/machines to the small and marginal farmers on hire
basis, 9970, 2866 and 4170 custom hiring centres have so far been initiated in Punjab, Haryana
and UP respectively. Several measures have been taken to manage crop residue which include
i) distribution of 1,52,579 machines to the farmers in these states during the last two years and
the current year, ii) awareness creation about in-situ crop residue management by conducting
1,817 awareness programmes, 28,247 demonstrations, 696 training programs and 130 kisan
melas during last two years and current year, iii) Replacement of long duration variety with
short duration paddy. With the result area under long duration variety reduced from 8.30 lakhs
hectare in 2019-20 to 4.82 lakh hectare area in 2020-21, and iv) crop diversification leading to
reduction in area under paddy. As a result, the crop burning events in these states reduced from
127774 in 2016 to 61332 in 2019.

Reaching to the Farmers and Youth with Improved Technologies

7.37 The linking of 3.37 lakh common service centers with 721 KVKs has tremendously
enhanced outreach of the KVKs and provided demand driven services and information to
farmers. The improved technologies reached farmers’ fields through 34432 on-farm trials and
2.44 lakh frontline demonstrations by KVKs. The production of 2.01 lakh quintals quality seeds
of field crops, 348.01 lakh planting materials of horticultural crops and 409.06 lakh livestock
strains and fish fingerlings were made available to farmers at a nominal cost.
FOOD PROCESSING SECTOR

7.38 During the last 5 years ending 2018-19, food processing industries (FPI) has been growing
at an average annual growth rate of around 9.99 per cent as compared to around 3.12 per cent
in agriculture and 8.25 per cent in manufacturing at 2011-12 prices. Food processing sector has
also emerged as an important segment of the Indian economy in terms of its contribution to GDP,
employment and investment. The sector constitutes as much as 8.98 per cent of Gross Value
Added (GVA) in manufacturing in 2018-19 at 2011-12 prices. Figure 13 presents a comparative
performance of food processing sector.

Figure 13: Growth of GVA in Different Sectors

22
17
12
7
2
-3 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19
-8
-13

Share of the GVA of FPI in Country GVA Share of the GVA of FPI in Manufacturing GVA
Growth of GVA in FPI

Source: Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI)