Innovation is intrinsic to agriculture. Ever since humans discovered the technique of multiplying wild seeds into food and other products, an unbreakable relationship between agriculture and creativity was born.
Marrying the potential of natural resources such as land and water to animal and human labour, timing various practices from ploughing to weeding, nourishing friendly bacteria in the soil and deflecting insect and winged pests and ultimately bringing in the harvest to process and store the crop to feed the family calls for enormous and almost daily innovation and near-perfect decision making.
Millions of farmers all over the world go about these complex daily tasks with a matter-of-fact attitude and little fuss; yet on closer scrutiny it is amazing how perfectly a system with so many intangible factors and players actually works.
The spirit of innovation is on display in India’s agriculture sector more than anywhere else the world.
With a population of over 600 million people being supported by the sector, and given the spectrum of well-known constraints challenging its performance, the successes of India’s agriculture are the greatest testimony to the immense creativity and innovative and enterprising spirit of its farmers. While significant steps have been taken in the past few decades with resolute state action to address a variety of risks in agriculture, it is the resilient and adaptive attitude of its agriculturists that ensures the dynamism of India’s farm sector.
Source: www.sfacindia.com