Give reasons for decline in food production in India.
The reasons responsible for the decline in the growth of food production are :
- Land degradation in the form of depletion of soil fertility, erosion and water logging has increased.
- Disparities in productivity across regions and between rainfed and irrigated areas has ; increased.
- Long-term factors include steep decline in per capita land availability (land holdings) and shrinking of farm size for the agrarian crisis.
- Land issues such as SEZs (Special Economic Zone), land put into non-agricultural uses, alienation of tribal land, etc are becoming important.
- Farmers’ suicides under pressure of indebtedness and poverty leads to a shift of occupation from agriculture to other sectors, this leads to further decline in food production.