Secondary Agriculture towards Increasing Production and Sustainability

Abstract

There is a pressing need for global agriculture to shift its focus to secondary agriculture in order to produce jobs as the world's population increases. The method of generating agricultural produce is biological in nature, making it a primary agriculture operation; but, when the raw produce is refined, it receives additional benefit, making it a secondary agriculture activity. Any farm related activity that uses the land or labor beyond the Kharif and Rabi seasons would qualify for a ‘Secondary Agriculture’ activity. India's scope for diversified agriculture is vast because of extensive arable land, multiple agro-climatic zones and a rich cafeteria of soils. However, India's reputation as a global agricultural powerhouse is ironically at odds with its farmers' low average wages. The road to higher agricultural Gross Value Added and farmers' income rests in efficient management of the post-production segment, comprising agri-logistics, processing and marketing. Agriculture generates raw materials that meet basic human requirements, and is considered as a primary economic activity. Of course, there are certain alternative agriculture activities like beekeeping, mushroom cultivation, backyard poultry, etc., which fall under the ambit of secondary agriculture. Secondary agriculture helps in using all parts of an agricultural produce, processing to enhance shelf-life, increasing total factor productivity, and generating additional jobs and income for farmers. It, thus, encompasses both food and non-food processing, and represents agro-processing. Income generation activities such as paddy straw fodder blocks, duck farming, honeybee keeping, mushroom cultivation, backyard poultry, among others, that do not compete with the time that is required for various inter-cultivation activities of primary agriculture production, qualify to be defined as a secondary agriculture. These Small-scale activities utilizes rural manpower, skills and locally available inputs efficiently. These enterprises can interact in space and/or time to achieve benefits through a synergistic resource transfer among enterprises, working closely such that waste from one part becomes a supply for another component of the system known as Integrated Farming System (IFS). Not only this but waste management is also one the important issue tackled with the help of secondary agriculture like leftover cane can be processed to produce by products of sugarcane. Thus, secondary agriculture realizes better productivity, profitability and sustainable production systems that would help to solve the fuel, feed and energy crisis, create more employment avenues, ensure regular income and encourage agriculture-oriented industry.