INDIAN AGRO INDUSTRY Agriculture is the essence of India.

Since time immemorial, the majority of its population bank on agriculture sector directly or indirectly. This is the reason, the contribution of Indian agriculture industry to GDP (Gross Domestic Products) is around 25 per cent. Agriculture in India is a crucial sector in socio-economic development of the country. Comparing the total farming output of India with other countries, India is ranked second worldwide. Because of transforming farming scenario and international competition, augmentation in production and meticulous distribution of food receive higher priority across the globe.

Being the largest producer of agricultural products like cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, the 2nd largest cultivator of vegetables, and the third largest producer of fruits. The total production of fruit is around 27.83 MT (Million Tons) and 54 MT in vegetables. India has also strengthened its position in the cultivation of flower and it is estimated that 35,000 hectare of flowers of various kinds like rose, jasmine, marigold, and so on are grown in one or the other part of India. Above all, India is now exporting rice & wheat. That has made India self sufficient in food. Agriculture industry in India has seen some remarkable changes since independence, also become very important from the perspective of employment generation, so Indian economy is reckoned as agri oriented. With increased level of sophisticated technologies, application of modern bio technologies, and rendering considerable importance to seeds, fertilizers, irrigation sources, agriculture business has reached a new height.

Government has played a pivotal role in the upliftment & expansion of agro industry by providing various facilities & schemes to the farmers and petty growers. Various policies and programs have come into force, farmer awareness programs coupled with subsidy incentive have been launched in order to meet the growing challenges. Now the sector has accustomed to modern processing technologies and devised methods of growing quality seed material. Irrigation method has also drastically evolved into micro-irrigation technology of drips irrigation. Indian farming sector can perfectly narrate a saga of success by individually being the noble contributor to Gross Domestic Product of the country. Overall improvement in agricultural operations like, transplanting, manuring and fertilizing, harvesting, threshing, winnowing, drying, carrying & transporting, enable the sector to produce ample of products such as cereals, pulses, seeds, spices, fruits, vegetables, dry fruits & nuts, edible oils, essential oils, flowers, fertilizers, fodder, dairy products, herbal products etc.

Agro Industry is a promising & lucrative sector and riding on an impressive growth. India's share in the global food market has grown to 0.7 percent and is assessed to reach 1.5 per cent. All these augur great for farming industry.

GLOBAL AGRO INDUSTRY

The agriculture industry plays a key role in world wide today as it is still one of the key and basic developments in modern society. Global agriculture industry will be primarily driven by rapidly growing population, increasing food consumption and subsequent need for securing sufficient food supply worldwide. Growing popularity of small-scale farming, increasing use of technology and robust demand for food commodities in emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil also show a positive prospect for the future of the industry. According to the report conducted by Hardman&Co, by the year 2010, 1.5 billion hectares of land in worldwide can be suitable for arable production, with an estimated value of about $5 trillion. It estimates that as a component of global GDP, the sector represents around 6% or $4.2 trillion of global output pa equal to around $650 per capita. As a percentage of global equities the listed agriculture related stocks account, we estimate, for less than 2% of total capitalisations, yet by comparison the S&P Financials sector enjoys a share of some 16% of total capitalisations whereas Financials share of GDP is now less than 8%.

Since the end of 2007 more than $13bn of investment has been put into global agricultural industry. In addition to this some larger deals are thought to have been done between states. The $5 trillion value of the worlds agricultural land is equivalent to only of 7% - 10% of the value of global equity markets. Yet this land is feeding over 6 billion people and is being pressed into feeding a further billion by 2050. However, world agriculture industry is also facing some pressures as Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations estimated that agricultural output will have to rise by 70% to feed the projected 9.1 billion human population in 2050, and the demand for meat will grow by nearly 23% over the next 10 years to reflect the growing appetite for animal protein in many countries.

KERALA AGRO INDUSTRY Kerala situation is different from other states of India or even the global scenario with regard to developmental sectors. The Kerala model is characterised by high life quality indices even at low GDP, this was made possible by deliberate strategies taken by the communist government in the development of Agriculture, Industry and service sectors of Kerala. The literacy status and impact education system on developmental sectors is also immense especially introduction of innovations and new technology. Kerala society is well educated and aware critically analysing each changes in science, technology and politics. There is a well decentralised and democratic government system, good public distribution system and strong local self governance and timely and unbiased elections and responsive voters.

The agriculture scenario of Kerala is also special. For one thing Kerala is blessed with diverse Climatic conditions and relief/ elevation in the small piece of land making it possible to grow a wide range of crop plants. The westernghat region of Kerala is a biological hotspot for genetic

diversity of a number of plants. The cropping system prevalent in Kerala is homestead agriculture where the farmer has a piece of land in which his house hold crop field, livestock etc are integrated in a system approach. Also today most of the cultivators are part-time farmers and diverse crops including a major chunk of tree crops are cultivated.

40% of land is under plantation crops and in this 20% of this in households. Since major cropping system is homestead system there is direct impact of policies in the households and farming community. The land use and cropping pattern is peculiar and responsive to tradable commodities and directly affected by the global prices. The effect of globalisation and liberalisation was different for different regions, different crops and different classes of society and in different time periods. In General Globalisation followed by Liberalisation and Deregularisation brought about two major changes in Kerala Agriculture