Farmers losing the plot due to illiteracy, small farm size, poor rain

The world’s two most populous countries China and India have the onerous challenge of ensuring food security for 2.75 billion through seasons of good rains and drought, with their ownership of farmland and water resource disproportionately small compared to the global total. 

India, with 18 per cent of world population, has 9.6 per cent, that is, 179.8 million hectares (mh) of global net cropland area. More worryingly, it has a meagre share of 4 per cent of global water resource. China, which hosts about one-fifth of the world population, has ownership of 7 per cent of the earth’s farmland. The