Fertilizers are essential to improve Soil Health and to sustain higher agricultural productivity in the country.    The Government of India (GoI) has been promoting soil test based Integrated Nutrient Management for balanced and judicious use of fertilizers. Soil Health Card Scheme has been implemented since 2015-16. Soil Health Card provides crop-wise recommendation on appropriate dosage of fertilizers to be applied.

 Pesticides play an important role in sustaining agricultural production by protecting crops from pests.  GoI has been implementing ‘Sub-Mission on Plant-protection and Plant Quarantine’ Scheme, under which Integrated Pest Management is promoted to educate the farmers about judicious use of chemical pesticides. Bio-pesticides and bio-control measures are also being promoted.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Growth rate recorded during last 5 years are as under:-

Year                       Percentage change over previous year

2014-15                              -0.2

2015-16                               0.6

2016-17                               6.8

(Third Revised Estimate)

2017-18                                5.9

(Second revised Estimate)

 2018-19                                2.4   

(First revised Estimate) 

Gross Value Added (GVA) of Agricultural and allied sectors’ share in total GVA of the country has increased from 16.1% in 2018-19 to 16.5% in 2019-20.

This information was given in a written reply by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar in Lok Sabha today.

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APS/PK/BA