Department of Agriculture

TheMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare(formerlyMinistry of Agriculture), a branch of theGovernment of India, is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws related to agriculture inIndia. The three broad areas of scope for the Ministry are agriculture,food processingand co-operation. The agriculture ministry is headed byMinister of AgricultureNarendra Singh Tomar. Abhishek Singh Chauhan,Krishna RajandParsottambhai Rupalaare the Ministers of State. Agriculture is the principal source of livelihood for more than half population of India. Agriculture provides the bulk of wage goods required by non-agriculture sectors and most of the raw materials for the industries sector.Indiais a largely agrarian economy - with 52.1% of the population estimated to directly or indirectly employed in agriculture and allied sectors in 2009-10.|Economic Survey|2010 The combined efforts of Central Government, State Governments and the farming community have succeeded in achieving record production of 244.78 million tonnes of foodgrains during 2010-11. This record production has been achieved through effective transfer of newly developed crop production technologies to farmers under various crop development schemes, such as the [Agriculture MMP], which is run under the direction of the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation. Other causes behind record production include remunerative prices for various crops through enhanced minimum support prices.