Constraints Faced by the Respondents in Recommended Fertilizer Management under Soil Health Card Scheme in Baldirai Block of Sultanpur District

Abstract

Agriculture in India has a significant history and it is still lifeline of Indian economy.
Agricultural sector accounted for 16.6% of the GDP in 2009 and its economic contribution to
India's GDP is steadily declining with the country's broad-based economic growth. Still,
agriculture is demographically the broadest economic sector and plays a significant role in
the overall socio-economic fabric of India. Over 66 years since its independence, India has
made quadrupled progress towards food-grain production. Prior to the mid-1960s India relied
on imports and food aid to meet domestic requirements. However, two years of severe
drought in 1965 and 1966 convinced India to reform its agricultural policy and adopted
significant policy reforms focused on the goal of food grain self-sufficiency. This ushered in
India's Green Revolution and it began with the decision to adopt superior yielding, disease
resistant varieties in combination with better farming knowledge to improve productivity.
India's arable land area of 159.7 million hectares (394.6 million acres) is the second largest in
the world, after the United States. Food security, nutritional security, profitability and
sustainability are the main principles of present and future agricultural development. With the
steady rise in human and livestock population, pressure on soils for enhancing the food
production has been mounting geometrically. Our country's population is expected to reach
1.5 billion by the middle of this century; we require about 310 million tones of food grains to
feed this population. More ever, the demographic projections indicate that the per capita land
availability from 0.14 ha at present will be reduced to 0.10 ha in the year 2025.According to
World Watch Institute; India may have to import 45 Mt of food grains by 2025 if the present
growth rates of agricultural production continue.
The best option that is left with us is to imp