Over the years, there have been no breakthroughs in either seed technology investment or farm yields. Moreover, the cultivable land for food grains has remained stagnant at 120 million hectares. There is no improvement of this land either in profitability or size of land holdings. Water crisis is at its peak, and even today the sector is heavily dependent on monsoons. Against this backdrop, almost 40% of Indian farmers have lost faith in their profession. If the government is not going to initiate rapid remedial measures, the sector is sure to collapse.

Reviving the sector is the need of the hour as 40% of the world's poor live in India, including one-third of the world's malnourished children. A report by the United Nations General Assembly entitled "The Extent of Chronic Hunger and Malnutrition in India" declared that hunger and malnutrition are bigger problems in India now than during the 1990s. The report further says, "As India's economy has taken off, the gap between those who have enough to eat and those who don't has widened. And while India claims self-sufficiency in food grains—even exporting them—it has failed to make food available to all its needy citizens. This year, for the first time in decades, India was forced to import food grains in order to meet its targets for basic food reserves."

On the other hand, the government has set an ambitious target of boosting annual GDP growth to an impressive 10%. However, there is no way of achieving this target without pushing the primary sector from the present sluggish annual growth rate to at least 4%. Experts say that achieving this growth rate is critical not only to cut down poverty but also to maintain social stability. It makes great political as well as economic sense to concentrate on and boost growth in agriculture. Going by little funds to invest, the government is counting on private investment from large corporations to modernize Indian agriculture. These include: shifting the focus from grains to fruits and vegetables; building a cold chain for fresh produce and processed foods, consolidating small holdings and streamlining agricultural production.

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