The US today has moved into a predominantly service-oriented economy.  The share of the services sector in the US economy is estimated around 78 per cent; of the secondary sector of manufacturing and mining is in the region of 20.5 per cent and that of agriculture is just around 0.9 per cent. 

The green revolution is bound to trigger a move from agrarian to an industrial and, subsequently, to a service-oriented economy.  If you travel back  two hundred years you would see that the US, the largest economy in the world, was almost totally agrarian.  The lack of means of transportation of agricultural produce to other parts had compelled local communities to focus on self-sufficiency in agricultural production.  Agriculture then had thus a preponderance portion of the nation’s GDP. 
The advent of rail-roads and industrial revolution witnessed a shift from agriculture to industry and mining. 
The increase in industrial production demanded, in course of time, a variety of services that include transportation, banking, insurance, marketing… Thus evolved the tertiary sector of services.
At each stage the share of the agriculture sector declined and those of the secondary and tertiary sectors in the GDP increased.  The US today has moved into a predominantly service-oriented economy.  The share of the services sector in the US economy is estimated around 78 per cent; of the secondary sector of manufacturing and mining is in the region of 20.5 per cent and that of agriculture is just around 0.9 per cent. 
As a consequence the number of persons directly dependant on agriculture has also fallen steeply and is presently estimated around 1.5 per cent of the total working population of US. 

India follows the US trend…
India also seems to be moving in this direction.  The services sector is estimated to account for 54-56 per cent of the nation’s GDP.  The secondary sector of manufacturing and mining is estimated to contribute 26-28 per cent of the GDP and that of agriculture to around 18 per cent.  There are wide variations at the states’ level.  Gujarat is estimated to have a strong manufacturing sector and its contribution is estimated in the region of forty per cent to the state’s GDP.  Tamil Nadu is witnessing a rapid move to services and manufacturing with agriculture estimated to contribute just around 14 per cent to the state’s GDP and manufacturing to 28-30 per cent.

The transition has several implications.  One witnesses a much faster rate of urbanization in Tamil Nadu than other states. The spread of cities and towns throughout the state from Chennai in the north to Nagercoil, Tuticorin and Tirunelveli in the south, the long coast line with three major ports and a wide network of roads had helped in this urbanisation.  An estimated 40 per cent of the state’s population lives in cities and towns.  Educational opportunities are well-spread throughout the state.  A large number of engineering colleges, medical colleges, polytechnics and arts and science colleges have also been a big help in the move from a agrarian to a service-oriented economy. 

High land prices render agriculture unprofitable...
Such a spread has also resulted in ever-increasing price of land.  This has serious consequences in rendering agriculture not quite profitable.  The absence of a high productive agriculture, fragmented land holdings and the poor state of land reforms have contributed to poor growth of agriculture and rapidly declining share of the agriculture sector to the state’s GDP, now estimated around 14 per cent.  With no corresponding steep fall in the numbers living in rural areas that depend on agriculture, the dent on poverty has been poor.

With land prices shooting up, there is compelling need for the state to vacate crops that yield poor returns and to focus on high value agriculture.  Unlike Punjab and Haryana, succession of chief ministers in the state have had no mooring in agriculture (through these forty one years all these have been from the film industry)and thus the state has not received much attention to the development of agriculture.

Need to move away from rice and sugarcane...
In the late 1980s IE suggested the advantage of the state vacating water-intensive crops like rice and sugarcane and shifting to oil seeds, pulses, cotton… Gujarat offers an excellent example of the success of such a focus: Gujarat accounts for close to forty per cent of the nation’s production of cotton and around thirty eight per cent groundnut.  A pointed focus on the state political and administrative leadership has been contributing to a high growth rate of agriculture, of over twelve per cent per annum, spreading prosperity to the large agrarian community.  For a full month the state leadership is involved in krishi mahotsavs involving scientists, administrators and ministers and MLAs in reaching out to the farmers and providing them with advice and inputs.  Tamil Nadu can adopt this practice to get benefit. 

The state has been doing well in services and manufacturing, but it does not mean that it should do badly in agriculture.  After all large sections of the population are still dependant on mother earth. -SV