Despite being least impacted by the Covid-19 lockdown, the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and allied sector inPunjabis projected to record a more than two-time drop in Growth rate, according toPunjab Economic Surveytabled in the state assembly.
The advance estimates shared in the survey show that agriculture one of the predominant sectors of the states economy is expected to grow by 1.4 % in 2021-22, after recording a growth of 3.1% in the previous financial year 2020-21. The sector grew at 1.81% in 2019-20, indicating uneven growth in recent years against the 2.2% Average growth rate registered between 2012-13 and 2018-19.
The crop husbandry sector is likely to have the most noticeable decline asGVAis expected to post a negative growth rate of -0.8%, against 2.4% in 2020-21. The fall in growth rate is expected to lead to a fall in the sectors contribution to overall gross state value added (GSVA), which is likely to slip from 30.7% in 2020-21 to 29.1% in 2021-22. In spite of the dip, agriculture and allied activities will continue to be the second highest contributor to Punjabs overall value added, after the service sector.
The survey has attributed the slowdown in the sector to production and productivity of rice and wheat reaching saturation level. Stress has been laid on diversifying crops and with special focus on pulses and oilseeds, which can help in saving Rs 621.33 crore of import value for pulses and Rs 5,221.60 crore for oilseeds by 2027.
Fallow and cultivable land has also come down from 6% and 5% of reporting area in 1960-61 to 2% and 0% in 2020-21, respectively. Not only this, land not available for cultivation has also decreased from 13% to 10 % between 1960-61 and 2020-21, pointing at limited scope for any expansion in the area under cultivation.