Beyond Agricultural Production: Building the Systems That Sustain It
I. Introduction: The Case for an Integrated Agricultural Infrastructure Architecture India's agricultural economy encompasses a wide range of activities, including foodgrain cultivation, commercial crops, horticulture, floriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, and aquaculture. These activities operate across diverse ecological and geographical conditions and depend on different combinations of inputs, water resources, infrastructure, logistics, and market arrangements. Strengthening this diverse agricultural economy therefore requires more than interventions directed at individual crops, commodities or production activities. It requires an integrated approach to the infrastructure and institutional systems that support them. Agricultural challenges are frequently discussed (especially in the context the current global disruptions) through the language of crises: irregular rainfall, declining groundwater levels, constrained fertiliser supply, fluctuating commodity prices, and inad...