Agriculture & Food Management

GS Paper: GS Paper III | Subject: Economy | Last updated: 2026-06-21

Prelims

(Key facts, data, schemes, laws, organizations — MCQ-ready points)

Union Agriculture Ministry stepping up preparedness against a possibly weak southwest monsoon (El Niño-linked rainfall vagaries)
Strategy: use the network of ~10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to push climate-resilient practices to farmers
Crop shift advised: from water-intensive paddy to low-moisture pulses & millets — moong, urad, kulthi (horse gram), ragi
Moisture-conservation technique promoted — mulching: covering soil with crop residue / straw / old gunny bags cuts evaporation losses, retains soil moisture longer, suppresses weeds (low-cost intervention)
FPO examples (Jharkhand): Tezpu Mahila Krishi...Sahkari Samiti (Khunti dist.), Sonam Niwes Farmer Producer Co. — adopted natural mulching

Kharif fertilizer requirement ≈ 384 lakh tonne; current stock ~196 lakh t (opening stock >200 lakh t) — comfortable as advance availability exceeded half the requirement, aided by domestic production >118 lakh t during the crisis; standard buffer norm = 33%
The US–Iran war / Hormuz closure stranded fertilizer cargo (15 bulk carriers + 1 ammonia carrier earmarked for repatriation; 8 urea / 4 DAP / 3 sulphur / 1 ammonia vessels west of Hormuz) — but ~40 lakh t was imported during the crisis mostly not via Hormuz: urea from Oman/Malaysia/Vietnam/Georgia/Russia, DAP & NPK from Russia/Morocco/Egypt/US/Jordan → shows import-source diversification as a food-security buffer (full geopolitics in [india-foreign-policy])
Underlines India's import dependence for fertilizers (esp. urea, DAP, MOP/potash, sulphur, ammonia) and the case for domestic capacity (nano-urea, coal-gasification-based urea), demand moderation and diversified sourcing

(Analysis, dimensions, significance, critique, policy angles — for 10/15 mark answers)

Pre-emptive adaptation: Acting before a forecast deficit (vs. relief after crop failure) — shifts agriculture from reactive to anticipatory governance
FPO as delivery vehicle: Aggregating small/marginal farmers through FPOs lets the State diffuse low-cost techniques and seed choices at scale — institutional answer to fragmented landholdings
Crop diversification co-benefits: Pulses/millets need less water, are nutritionally rich (millets = "Shree Anna"), fix nitrogen, and de-risk income vs. paddy in a deficient year — aligns with food-security + water-table + nutrition goals
Critique: MSP and procurement still skew heavily toward paddy/wheat; without assured markets, voluntary crop-switching is hard. Mulching helps but cannot substitute for irrigation/insurance (PMFBY) in a severe drought
UPSC angle: El Niño & Indian monsoon, climate-resilient agriculture, FPOs, millets revival, dryland farming, soil-moisture conservation