Agriculture and Allied Activities
5. AGRICULTURE AND ALLIED ACTIVITIES
AGRICULTURE
5.1 With more than half of the State’s population still dependent for their livelihoods either wholly or significantly on some form of farm activity, expansion of farm incomes continues to be the potent weapon for reducing poverty. Rapid and sustainable growth in Agriculture has been identified not only as a key driver for economic development but also for achieving self sufficiency and ensuring food security to the people. Over the decades, Andhra Pradesh has witnessed a gradual transformation in the agriculture sector. The nature of the transformation itself has undergone change overtime. The initial and noteworthy transformation that took place during 1980s was the shift from a traditional cereal-based system towards commercial commodities such as oilseeds, cotton and sugarcane. However, during 1990s, when the crop sector witnessed high volatility due to consecutive droughts and decelerating crop yields, the transformation although continued, was more towards high-value commodities such as fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, poultry and fish,. In fact, the high-value commodities performed impressively and rescued the agriculture sector to a great extent. Achieving a growth rate in excess of 4% in Agriculture sector during 11th Five Year Plan period was set with the objective of shifting a sizable excess labor force from the Agriculture sector to other non-farm rural sectors especially to rural industry through skill development, with ultimate object of improvement of productivity in agriculture sector. Ensuring Food security and providing gainful employment to the labor force continues to be the essential premise for the socio economic development of the people and employment guarantee schemes like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme(MGNREGS) and other Rural Livelihoods programmes are effectively catering to this objective. Improving farm incomes and ensuring sustainable growth in the agriculture and
AGRICULTURE
5.1 With more than half of the State’s population still dependent for their livelihoods either wholly or significantly on some form of farm activity, expansion of farm incomes continues to be the potent weapon for reducing poverty. Rapid and sustainable growth in Agriculture has been identified not only as a key driver for economic development but also for achieving self sufficiency and ensuring food security to the people. Over the decades, Andhra Pradesh has witnessed a gradual transformation in the agriculture sector. The nature of the transformation itself has undergone change overtime. The initial and noteworthy transformation that took place during 1980s was the shift from a traditional cereal-based system towards commercial commodities such as oilseeds, cotton and sugarcane. However, during 1990s, when the crop sector witnessed high volatility due to consecutive droughts and decelerating crop yields, the transformation although continued, was more towards high-value commodities such as fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, poultry and fish,. In fact, the high-value commodities performed impressively and rescued the agriculture sector to a great extent. Achieving a growth rate in excess of 4% in Agriculture sector during 11th Five Year Plan period was set with the objective of shifting a sizable excess labor force from the Agriculture sector to other non-farm rural sectors especially to rural industry through skill development, with ultimate object of improvement of productivity in agriculture sector. Ensuring Food security and providing gainful employment to the labor force continues to be the essential premise for the socio economic development of the people and employment guarantee schemes like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme(MGNREGS) and other Rural Livelihoods programmes are effectively catering to this objective. Improving farm incomes and ensuring sustainable growth in the agriculture and