Institute village linkage programme

Abstract

Agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries provide maximum employment in the primary sector and form the major source of income and livelihood security of about 70 percent of the population in India. After the introduction of the liberalisation policy and giving thrust for the adoption of improved technologies, there has been a spectacular increase in production in all these segments and the country has witnessed a rapid structural change. Massive adoption of scientific inventions and technological interventions witnessed revolutionary changes in all sectors of development and quality of life of people. Achieving self-sufficiency on food front has been one of the finest Indian successes of the post independence era. The food grain production increased four times (from 50.8 million tonnes during 1950-51 to 198.7 million tonnes during 2000-01) since independence as compared to the three-fold increase in population. Further significant advances have also been made in the production of milk, fish, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables. In fisheries, the country has ushered in the blue revolution with gross production reaching 5.6 million metric tonnes offish and edible invertebrates during 2000- 2001. India is the second largest Asian country in terms of culture fisheries and the third largest in terms of capture fisheries (NAAS, 2001). Due to concerted efforts on strategic research and production technology in oilseeds sector, the country witnessed yellow revolution with the production reaching 25 million tonnes per annum. This was possible as a result of strong agricultural research support provided by the National Agricultural Research System (NARS).