Question

Provide a brief historical overview of farming industry over time. What factors have contributed to the farming industry's economic uncertainty and losses? How do innovations have the potential to help stabilize food production and profits in the future? Give 2 examples of food production innovations and explain.

Answer 1

Farming industry, from an economic perspective, is the primitive kind of activity for the livelihood of the economy. In the initial stages, all economies depend upon the farming sector or the industry. The factors that contribute to the uncertainty of the farming sectors are weather conditions, pests in the crops etc. It is quite uncertain when do we have rain or at what point crop is taken over by pests.

The factors that contribute to the losses in the farming industry are disguised unemployment, low level of infrastructure, and low level of technology. More people than needed are employed in the agricultural sector, irrigation is not widely available, and equipment helpful in efficient farming are not affordable for people.

Innovation such as better irrigation pipelines, machines for crop cultivation etc can help in reducing cost and thereby increasing the profits. This also helps in increasing production.

The example of food production innovation is the introduction of HYV seeds in India where the production of foodgrains shoot up and the other example is that of pesticides medicines to protect the crop from pests.