Essay: STEEPLE analysis of agriculture industry in Gujarat

Social factor

• The major social impact would be improved livelihood opportunities for poor farmer, as they would be able to generate more income from farming from limited land and water.
• Another impact is improved health of rural people, especially women and children.
• The socio economic impacts would be measured using analysis of data on changes in cropped area and irrigated area, change in cropping pattern, incremental costs and benefits of different interventions such as horticulture and micro irrigation, changes in farm income and overall household income; number of small and marginal farmers accessing groundwater domestic cereal & milk production.
• Social impact would be measured by analyzing data on food consumption pattern of households.

Technological factor

• Machines and irrigation are two types of technology that can increase yields.
• Greenhouses, with computer-controlled technology, provide ideal conditions for high quality crops.
• The computer controls the temperature, moisture level and amount of feed for the plants. Genetic engineering has allowed new plants to be bred that resist drought and disease and give higher yields.
• More easy work to using the new technologies and effectively work has done by farmer. Reduced the labor work.

Economic factor

• Gujarat, the most urbanized state of India, is situated on the western coast of India having the coastline of 1600 km. Government of Gujarat has touched upon almost all the key sectors covering Industry, Power, Ports, Roads, Agriculture and Mineral.
• It is one of India’s most prosperous states, having per capita GDP significantly above India’s average.
• Gujarat’s State Domestic Product (SDP) had been rising at an average growth rate of 10.1% since 2005 to 2013, this is more than the national average.
• State based SEZ contributed more than 66% of overall export by national SEZs.
• Gujarat has provided new opportunities under global financial services GIFT in Gandhinagar.

Environmental factor

• These are physical factors and include climate, relief and soil.

Climate

• Temperature (minimum 6°C for crops to grow) and rainfall (at least 250mm to 500mm) influence the types of crops that can be grown, e.g. hot, wet tropical areas favour rice, while cooler, drier areas favour wheat.
• Rain generally falls between November-March, when the weather can be humid and sticky
• The length of the growing season also influences the crops grown, e.g. wheat needs 90 days. Some rice-growing areas have two or three crops per year.

Relief

• Lowlands, such as flood plains, are good for crops.
• Steep slopes hinder machinery and have thinner soils; lower, more gentle slopes are less prone to soil erosion.
• Tea and coffee crops prefer the well-drained soil on hill slopes.
• Temperature decreases by 6.5°C for every 1000 metres gained in height.
• South-facing slopes receive more sunlight.

Soil

• Fertility is important; poor soil means lower outputs or larger inputs of fertilisers.
• Floodplains are good for rice because of the alluvial soils.
• Good drainage reduces the dangers of water logging.

Political factor

• Some expect the political power of agriculture to decrease with declining agricultural populations.
• State’s dependence on agriculture (constituency interests), electoral security, key committee membership, seniority, political party, and ideology and strong political culture is beneficial for agriculture industry.
• Agriculture’s share (this includes animal husbandry) has declined from 13.2% in 2004-05 to 10.9% in 2010-11. While the share has declined, the growth rate of Gujarat’s agriculture, especially since 2000, has been remarkable and has been commented upon.
• The Gujarat Cooperatives and Water Users Participatory Irrigation Management Act was passed in 2007 and participatory irrigation management introduced.
• It is important thing to stable and strong political environment.

Legal factor

• Legal issues raised by specific applications of biotechnology, agricultural, food and fisheries production systems, etc; ensuring that these aspects were taken into account in public policy deliberations.
• Tax on crop or any other taxation is affected agriculture industry.
• Subsidy on machinery and land etc all loan is important to farmer .
• Nowadays Gujarat is vibrant Gujarat so policy and law for farmer improved compare to older days.

Ethical factor

• Ethical eating or food ethics refers to the moral consequences of food choices, both those made by humans for themselves and those made for food animals.
• Common concerns are damage to the environment, exploitive labor practices, food shortages for others, inhumane treatment of food animals, and the unintended effects of food policy. Ethical eating is a type of ethical consumerism.
• Gujarat is most of preferred vegetarian food. they believes are strong for god and affected to agriculture industry .

Demographic factor

• The demographic profile, Gujarat is the state having more than 60% of the population in between age group of 15-59.
• There is potential to improve technical efficiency in large number of region in the liberalized regime in Gujarat.
• In large parts of the state agriculture has witnessed broad technical progress. But it is combines with inefficient use of reason .output growth is still over whelming dependent on increased use of purchased input.
• Most of the districts are producing at considerably reduced technical efficiency and the distinction between intensive agriculture and technical change is at best blurred.
• Technical efficiency of farmers is largely determined by socio economic and demographic factors such as age of farmers, experience in farming, education level size of land holding and training regarding changing technology. Timely availability of credit also leads of efficiency irrespective of farm size.