Interrelationship between Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sectors

People are engaged in various economic activities within the economy. There are several ways to group them: primary/secondary/tertiary; organized/unorganized; and public/private. These groups are called sectors.

Primary Sector: There are many activities that are undertaken by directly using natural resources. For example, the cultivation of cotton. Cotton production depends mainly (though not entirely) on natural factors like rainfall, sunshine and climate. So cotton is a natural product. Similarly, in case of activity like dairy, we are dependent on the biological process of the animals and availability of fodder etc. The product milk is a natural product. Minerals and ores are also natural products. When we produce a good by exploiting natural resources, it is an activity of the primary sector. This is because it forms the base for all other products that we subsequently make. Since most of the natural products we get are from agriculture, dairy, fishing, forestry, this sector is also called agriculture and related sector.

Secondary Sector: This sector covers activities in which natural products are changed into other forms through ways of manufacturing that we associate with industrial activity. It is the next step after primary. The product is not produced by nature but has to be made and therefore some process of manufacturing is essential. This could be in a factory, a workshop or at home. For example, using cotton fibre from the plant, we spin yarn and weave cloth. Using sugarcane as a raw material, we make sugar or gur. We convert earth into bricks to make houses and buildings. Since this sector gradually became associated with the different kinds of industries that came up, it is also called as industrial sector.

Tertiary Sector: After primary and secondary, there is a third category of activities that falls under tertiary sector. These activities help in the development of the primary and secondary sectors. But these activities, by themselves, do not produce a good but they are an aid for the production process. For example the goods that are produced in the primary or secondary sector would need to be transported by trucks or trains and then sold in wholesale and retail shops. At times, it may be necessary to store these in godowns. We may also need to talk to people or send letters/mails (communicate) or borrow money from banks to help production and trade. Transport, storage, communication, banking, trade are some examples of tertiary activities. Since these activities generate services rather than goods, the tertiary sector is also called the service sector.

Service sector also includes some essential services that may not directly help in production of goods. For example, we require teachers, doctors and those who provide personal services such as washermen, barbers, cobblers, lawyers and people in administrative and accounting works. In recent times, certain new services based on information technology such as internet café, ATM booths, call centres, software companies etc have become important.

Thus it is clear that the various economic activities, though grouped into three different categories, are highly interdependent. Further examples of economic activities can be cited which shows how the three factors are dependent on each other.

(a) Farmers sell sugarcane to a particular sugar mill. If these farmers refuse to sell sugarcane, the mill will have to close down. This is an example of the secondary (industrial) sector being dependent on the primary sector. The manufacturing sector depends on the primary sector for raw materials.

(b) In turn, the primary sector depends on the secondary sector. One aspect of dependence is the fact that the output of the former is used as inputs in the latter. If fabric manufacturers decided not to buy from the Indian market and import all cotton from abroad, the plight of the Indian cotton cultivators is unimaginable. Indian cotton cultivation will become less profitable and the farmers may even go bankrupt, if they cannot quickly switch to other crops. Cotton prices will fall. The other aspect is that output of the manufacturing sector is used as inputs in agricultural production. For example, farmers buy many goods such as tractors, pumpsets, electricity, pesticides and fertilizers. If the prices of fertilizers or pumpsets go up, cost of cultivation of the farmers would rise and their profits would be reduced.

(c) People working in industrial and service sector get the food that they need from the primary sector. If the farmers decide not to sell their products food will become scarce and workers of the industrial and tertiary sectors will suffer. On the same footing, if there is a strike by transporters and lorries (service sector) refuse to carry vegetables, milk and other food items from the place of their production to the markets, the farmers will be unable to sell their products.

(d) The industrial sector thrives on the services from the tertiary sector and the existence of the service sector would be meaningless if it had no services to render to the other two sectors.