Agriculture plays a vital role in the state of Rajasthan for its economic, employment and ecological point of view. The agriculture and allied sector sector which include crops, livestock, forestry and fishing in Rajasthan contributes 28.9% to state gross domestic product (SGDP) which is almost double than the national average at 18.4%. On the contrary, Rajasthan employs over 54.8% of its workforce much higher than the national average over 45% of the workforce during 2022-23. The importance of the agricultural and allied sector is unquestionable as it makes up over a quarter of State’s total gross state domestic product (GSDP) and animal husbandry sector alone with more than one third of the agricultural sector in GSDP. Over the period, Rajasthan has registered the highest 10-years average annual growth in agriculture at 5.54% against the national average at 3.92%. The sub-sectors of agriculture have also shown record growth with crops growing at 2.68%, livestock at 10.83%, forestry at 4.32% and fishing at 9.44% respectively.

Table. 10-Year Average Annual Growth Rate For Agriculture (2021-22)

Note: Growth is based on gross value added at constant basic prices; *2013-14 to 2021-22.

Source: National Accounts Statistics Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Despite the production potential, Rajasthan contributes a meager share of hardly 1.5% in the country's agri export of APEDA mandated products in quantity and 2.23% in value terms, which covers about 52% of all agricultural exports from the country. However, Rajasthan occupies a significant share of almost 41.26% of total export in quantity and 44.4% in value term of seed spices exported from India.

The government of Rajasthan has implemented several programs to improve agricultural productivity including investment in irrigation projects, crop diversification, agricultural research and extension services. The state of Rajasthan has increased the numbers of State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) to six covering vast geography and diverse cropping systems. As a result of these efforts, agricultural production in Rajasthan has increased significantly in recent years. The state has also been promoting the development of agri- businesses and providing financial assistance to entrepreneurs, agri-business, farmer producer organization (FPO) and farmers. However, the agriculture sector in Rajasthan is facing several challenges, including low productivity, water scarcity, inadequate infrastructure, lack of market access and absence of a sustainable value chain system.

Rajasthan, with its diverse agro-climatic conditions is richly endowed in the cultivation of a variety of crops and a strong animal husbandry, horticulture and forestry sectors. Rajasthan State contributes a major portion of national production of mustard, guar, rabi and kharif pulses, soybean, oilseeds and spices including cumin, coriander, fenugreek, fennel etc. Similarly, in the case of horticultural crops, the State holds a major share of production of carom seeds, henna and isabgol, vegetables, garlic, oranges and pomegranate. In fact, Rajasthan has surplus in many crops such as cumin, isabgol, groundnut, sesame, guar, senna and henna etc. In nutshell, there are a number of livelihood opportunities and employability in the agriculture sector in Rajasthan including:

• Farming: Farming is the most common livelihood opportunity in the agriculture sector in Rajasthan. Farmers can grow a variety of crops.
• Animal husbandry: Animal husbandry is another important livelihood opportunity in the agriculture sector in Rajasthan. Farmers can raise livestock, such as cattle, buffaloes, goats, and sheep.
• Agroforestry: Agroforestry is growing livelihood opportunity in the agriculture sector in this state with a large number of farmers growing native and exotic fruit crops such as date palm, pomegranate, guava, citrus, papaya, lemon, ber, karonda, gonda and amla.
• Agri-business: Agri-business is a rapidly growing sector in Rajasthan. Agri-businesses provide a range of services to farmers, such as input supply, marketing, and processing.
• Off-farm employment: There are also a number of off-farm employment opportunities in the agriculture sector in Rajasthan including organic registration and certification, IPM promotion, agricultural extension, agricultural research, agricultural marketing and agri businesses.

The employability in the agriculture sector in Rajasthan is expected to grow in the coming years. This is due to a few factors, including the growing population, government’s focus on agriculture and the growth of agri-businesses including processing, value addition and agri export creating employment opportunities in the agriculture sector. The government of Rajasthan has also taken many initiatives to increase the involvement of the rural population in agriculture generating a number of livelihood opportunities and employability by investing in irrigation projects to improve water availability for agricultural production, promoting crop diversification to reduce the risk of crop failure and improve productivity, providing agricultural research and extension services to farmers to improve their knowledge about modern agricultural practices, promoting the development of agri-businesses to provide farmers with better access to markets and inputs and providing financial assistance to farmers to help them invest in agricultural production.

Agriculture infrastructure, gaps and solutions

Over the years, the State of Rajasthan has been adopting high tech infrastructure in micro irrigation and protected cultivation which is paving way for cluster-based demand-oriented production planning. Moreover, Rajasthan is one of the largest states in India partaking in organic farming, with over 84,000 hectares of registered organic farm area. Rajasthan is also taking keen interest in protected agriculture like storehouse, warehouse, poly house, net house, glass house, rainout shelters, solar devices etc. The area under green houses and shade net houses is 44.9 lakh and 6.76 lakh sq m respectively.

On the output front, there are insufficient number of agri-based industries for many crops in Rajasthan which is depriving the State from the advantage of production. Therefore, a paradigm shift in the approach is required from merely harvesting and selling of crops in the local mandi to a demand driven supply activity with an increased focus on processing and value addition. Moreover, there are limited number of warehouses available in the private sector, therefore, development of a proper network of warehouses in higher production areas shall provide an opportunity to farmers to store their farm produce for taking a selling decision at an appropriate time with an option of pledge finance against warehouse receipt for fulfilling their immediate needs. Similarly, the increased production of vegetables and fruits as well as seed spices need cold storage facilities for preventing qualitative and quantitative losses.

Driven by the supply side, the agriculture and food processing industry in Rajasthan has to grow rapidly to increase localized processing and value addition. The state of Rajasthan has a number of advantages for agriculture and food processing, including:

• Abundant raw materials: Rajasthan is a major producer of a variety of fruits, vegetables, cereals, oilseeds, spices, aromatic and medicinal plants. This provides a good source of raw materials for food processing industries.
• Competitive labor costs: The labor costs in Rajasthan are lower than in many other states. This makes it an attractive destination for food processing industries.
• Government support: The government of Rajasthan is providing support to the food processing industry. This includes providing subsidies, tax breaks, and infrastructure development under the PM Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PM FME Scheme), ODOP scheme and the Rajasthan Agro-processing, Agri-business & Agri-export Promotion Policy, 2019.

As a result of these factors, the food processing industry in Rajasthan has been growing rapidly with large numbers of food processing clusters and food parks, including:

• Mega Food Park, Ajmer: This is the largest food park in Rajasthan with processing capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum.
• Food Processing Cluster, Jaipur: This cluster is located in Jaipur district with processing capacity of 0.5 million tonnes per annum.
• Agro Processing Cluster, Jodhpur: This cluster is located in Jodhpur district with processing capacity of 0.25 million tonnes per annum.
• Storage capacity: There are only 161 cold storages with a total storage capacity of 5.27 lakh tonnes in Rajasthan
• Inland container depot: A centre for perishable cargo (CPC) at Jaipur, and 8 inland container depots (ICDs) at different locations including Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota to facilitate trade within and outside India.
• International airport: The State has a fully operational international airport at Jaipur, with direct flights to Sharjah, Muscat and Bangkok.
• Land Availability: Rajasthan Industrial Development and Investment Corporation Ltd (RIICO) has developed 338 industrial areas with about 82,000 acres throughout the state.
• Single Window Approval: A Single Window Clearance System (SWCS) is operational at Bureau of Investment Promotion (BIP), Rajasthan as a single point interaction mechanism for entrepreneurs to interact with the State to seek statutory approvals for their projects. Keeping with the times, the entire process of application and monitoring is through web-enabled software called the Single Point Electronic Monitoring and Clearance System.
• Agriculture Market Reforms: Provisions in the State APMC Act have been made for contract farming, direct purchase outside the market yards, unified license etc. Further, Rajasthan is one of those few states which has done away with Mandi Fee/user charge on perishable items like fruits and vegetables.

Having enumerated the strength, the state’s agriculture infrastructure is not fully developed, and there are a number of critical gaps that need to be addressed in order to increase agriculture and food processing including;

• Inadequate irrigation facilities: Rajasthan is a water-scarce state, and this limits the availability of water for irrigation. This, in turn, limits the production of crops that can be processed.
• Lack of cold storage facilities: Cold storage facilities are essential for storing perishable agricultural products. The lack of cold storage facilities in Rajasthan limits the ability of farmers to store their produce and sell it later.
• Inadequate cold chain transportation facilities: Transportation facilities are essential for transporting agricultural products to processing plants. The lack of adequate transportation facilities in Rajasthan makes it difficult and expensive to transport perishable agricultural products to processing plants and export destinations.
• Lack of large scale processing plants: There is a lack of processing plants in Rajasthan, which limits the ability of farmers to process their produce and add value to it. Creating processing plants in the production clusters would enable localized processing and deter farmers from transporting produce to other states.
• Lack of awareness about food processing: There is a need to raise awareness about food processing among farmers and other stakeholders in Rajasthan.
• Providing government support: The government is providing more support to the food processing industry under various State and Central schemes such as the PM Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PM FME Scheme), ODOP scheme and the Rajasthan Agro-processing, Agri-business & Agri-export Promotion Policy, 2019.

Sector specific fill up-gradation requirements

There is a dire need to rope in agri and food experts in various field including IndGAP, GAP, organic certification, MRL and residue management, quality parameters, regulatory requirements, Importer-Exporter Code, supply chain requirement of agri-exports, incentives, import certificate, sanitary and phytosanitary requirement, quarantine regulation, NBA’s regulation, DAC’s EXIM seeds and planting material, container management and procedures to be followed in dispatch and uploading requisite documents for agri-export. The agriculture sector in Rajasthan is to develop a repository of information about major clusters, incubation centres, entrepreneurs, start-ups, processors and exporters and a knowledge bank on agri processing, value addition and export from Rajasthan. It is also important to prepare a reliable set of data bases, knowledge repository, inventory of schemes of Centre as well as State govt to attract entrepreneurs and facilitate agri-export from Rajasthan. Moreover, there is a dire need for skill upgradation in agriculture in Rajasthan in order to improve the productivity and sustainability of the agriculture sector. Some of the key areas where skill upgradation is required is to train farmers in the latest agricultural practices, such as crop rotation, water conservation, and pest management, certification and sustainability, livestock owners need to be trained in the latest animal husbandry practices, such as vaccination, breeding, and feed management and agri-business entrepreneurs need to be trained in the latest agri-business practices, such as market analysis, product development, marketing and branding.

• Modern agricultural practices: Farmers need to be trained in the latest agricultural practices, such as crop intensification, judicious use of chemical inputs, crop diversification and crop rotation, precision and digital agriculture such as drone and pest & disease management, certification and sustainability.
• Use of technology: Farmers need to be trained in the use of modern agricultural technologies, such as drones, precision equipment, micro irrigation, harvesters and residue management equipment in farming systems.
• Production & processing: Food production and processing workers need to be trained in the latest food production & processing practices, such as sanitation, food hygiene, food safety, packaging, labeling, and distribution.
• Market & marketing skills: Farmers and processors need to be trained in future and spot market prices and marketing their produce, so that they can get a fair price for their produce.
• Business skills management: Farmers need to be trained in business skills, so that they can manage their farms more effectively whereas food management professionals need to be trained in the latest food management practices, such as inventory management, financial management, and human resource management.

By upgrading their skills, food sector workers in Rajasthan can improve their productivity and efficiency, and they can also get better jobs and facilitate export of surplus. This would help to improve the lives of food sector workers and their families, and it will also help to boost the economy of Rajasthan.