[Answered] “Without factoring in agriculture, the vision of a $5-trillion economy will remain a distant dream”. Discuss.

To achieve a $5 trillion economic goal, the growth of key sectors is important for economic growth. Agriculture is the key sector to achieve this target. Agricultural progress is essential to provide food for growing non-agricultural labour force, raw materials for industrial production and saving to support development of the rest of the economy, to earn foreign exchange and to provide a growing market for domestic manufactures.

Why agriculture is important for $5trillion economic goal?

• India ranks second worldwide in farm outputs.
• As per 2018, Agriculture employed 50% of the Indian work force.
• Agriculture sector contributed 17-18% to country’s GDP.
• Agriculture is demographically the broadest economic sector.
• It plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic fabric of India.
• About 67% of people still live in rural areas.

How agriculture can lead to $5 trillion objective?

1. By contribution to National Income:
   • It is well known fact that economic development of many developed countries was backed by agricultural sector.
   • Agriculture sector being the largest employing sector of the country contributing about 18% to GDP is important for $5 trillion goal.
2. Food security: Agriculture is the basic source of food supply.
   • If agriculture fails to meet the rising demand of food products, it is found to affect adversely the growth rate of the economy.
   • Therefore increase in food supply by agricultural sector is must for economic growth of a country.
3. Raw Material Source for other sectors:
   • Agricultural advancement is necessary to improve the raw material supply for the agro-based industries (flour mills, oil mills, bread, meat, milk products, sugar factories, etc).
   • The shortage of agricultural goods impact adversely on industrial production and lead to rise in prices of the goods.
   • It will hinder the growth of the country’s economy.
4. Exports of agricultural products: The progress in agricultural sector lead to surplus production. This increase the exports of agricultural products.
5. Creation of Infrastructure: The development of agriculture create roads, market, storage, transportation, railways, and many other services. This will boast economic growth.
6. Plug Inequalities:
   • India is predominantly an agricultural economy with greater inequality of income between the rural and urban areas of the country.
   • To reduce this inequality of income, it is necessary to grow agricultural sector.
   • The growth of agriculture would raise the income of the majority of the rural population and thus the disparity in income may be reduced to a certain extent.
7. Growth of other sectors:
   • The development of agricultural sector will increase the purchasing power of rural and poor people which will help in growth of the non-agricultural sector of the country.
   • It will provide a market for increased production. Therefore, it will be helpful in stimulating the growth of the non- agricultural sector.
8. Rural Welfare: The growing agricultural sector will improve social welfare, particularly in rural areas. The living standard of rural masses will rise.

Thus agricultural development is must for the economic development of a country. Even developed countries lay emphasis on agricultural development. $5 trillion mark cannot be achieved without agricultural growth. Government should focus on removing agricultural bottlenecks and increasing investment in agriculture.