Consider the following statements:India has more arable area than China.The proportion of irrigated

Question

Consider the following statements:India has more arable area than China.The proportion of irrigated area is more in India as compared to China.The average productivity per hectare in Indian agriculture is higher than that in China.How many of the above statements are correct?

Accepted Answer

India and China are the most populous countries in the world. However, with limited arable land about 120 million hectares in China, and 156 million hectares in India, both face the challenge of producing enough food, fodder, and fiber for their population. Both have adopted modern technologies in agriculture, starting with High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds in the mid-1960s, increased irrigation cover, and use of more chemical fertilizers to get more food from this limited land. Hence statement 1 is correct.China’s irrigation cover is 41% of cultivated area, and India’s is 48%. As a result of this irrigation, China’s total sown area is 166 million hectares compared to India’s gross cropped area of 198 million hectares. Even with much lesser land under cultivation, China produces agricultural output valued at $1,367 billion—more than three times that of India’s $407 billion. Hence statement 2 is correct.Better seeds that result from higher R&D expenditures generally demand more fertilizer. It is worth noting that China’s fertilizer consumption in 2016 was 503 kg/ha of arable area compared to just 166 kg/ha for India, as per World Bank estimates. No wonder, China’s productivity in most crops is 50% to 100% higher than India’s. Agricultural yield is the quantity of a crop produced on one unit of land. In India, agricultural yield of food grains has increased by more than four times since 1950-51, and was 3479 kg/hectare in 2021. Whereas the average yield of food grains was 6321 kg/hectare. Hence statement 3 is not correct.Source Citation: Financial Express