The government regulated the agricultural sector, which barred the necessary impetus for the growth of the sector. So, the Indian agriculture never came out of `subsistence farming'. Marginal farmers, constituting the majority of farmer populace, consume their own produce and the remaining produce, if any, are sold to the money lenders or local traders. Farmers are forced to sell their produce at a rate much lower than the prevailing market rate.
India is traditionally an agrarian economy, contributing 23% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), providing food to billions and employment to 66% of the Indian workforce. Most of the agrarian workforce (60%) lives in the 6,38,365 villages scattered across the diverse terrain of India. Agriculture is the major economic activity of 742 million of Indian rural populace(Table I) . About 53% of the young men (aged between 24 to 45 years) find their employment in agricultural activity. In the recent years, the dominance of agriculture has reduced, in terms of declining contribution to national GDP (Table II) and employability of young men, but remained an important economic activity. In the post independence era, the Indian agricultural sector underperformed, resulting in acute food shortages due to suboptimal farming practices and vicarious weather patterns. The newly formed state of India came forward to tackle the challenge of production shortfalls and the subsequent starvation. The government regulated the agricultural sector with controlled land ownership, input pricing and product marketing.
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