Page 144 - DECO502_INDIAN_ECONOMIC_POLICY_ENGLISH

Indian Economic Policy

Notes Table 4 : Percentage distribution of cereals output

Year Rice Wheat Coarse grains Total cereals
1950-51 48 15 37 100
1960-61 50 16 34 100
1990-91 46 34 20 100
2006-07 46 37 17 100
2007-08 45 36 19 100
2008-09 45 37 18 100
2009-10 44 40 16 100

Source : Economic Survey 2010-11. Agricultural Statistics at a Glance (2008).
(iv) Boost to agricultural production and employment : The successful adoption of the new
agricultural technology has led to continuous expansion in area under crops, increase in total
production and rise in agricultural productivity. Impressive results have been achieved in wheat,
rice, maize, potatoes, etc. The adoption of new technology has also given a boost to agricultural
employment because of diverse job opportunities created by multiple cropping and shift towards
hired workers. At the same time, there has been displacement of agricultural labour by the
extensive use of agricultural machinery.
(v) Forward and backward linkages strengthened : The new technology and modernisation of
agriculture have strengthened the linkages between agriculture and industry. Even under
traditional agriculture, the forward linkage of agriculture with industry was always strong,
since agriculture supplied many of the inputs of industry; but backward linkage of agriculture
to industry — the former using the finished products of the latter was weak. Now, however,
agricultural modernisation has created a larger demand for inputs produced and supplied by
industries to agriculture and thus the backward linkage has also become quite strong. In this
way, the linkage between agriculture and industry has got strengthened.
Weaknesses of the New Strategy

The new agricultural technology has made the farmer market-oriented. The farmers are largely
dependent on the market for the supply of inputs and for the demand for their output. At the same
time, the demand for agricultural credit has also increased as the new technology has increased the
cash requirements of the farmer. Besides, modern technology has definitely proved its superiority
over the traditional technology only in those areas where appropriate conditions prevail. But as
mentioned above, these conditions prevail only in certain selected areas and the rest of the country is
not yet suitable for advanced technology. What is, therefore, wanted is the evolution of a low-cost
technology which can be adopted by all small farmers and which can use and exploit the local resources.
(1) Indian Agriculture is still a gamble in the monsoons : When the new agricultural strategy was
introduced in the early 1960’s, it was hoped that the trend of rising output of foodgrains would
continue (Table 4). The then record achievement of 108 million tonnes of foodgrains in 1970-71
was hailed that green revolution had materialised and imports were immediately stopped. The
euphoria was cut short in 1972-73 when production of foodgrains slumped to 95 million tonnes.
Sharp fluctuations in foodgrain output were observed in the later years too. From a low level of
about 100 million tonnes in 1974-75, foodgrains output rose gradually to 132 million tonnes in
1978-79. There was a steep decline in production just next year due to adverse weather conditions;
foodgrains output in that year was 109 million tonnes in 1979-80 which was almost the same as
1970-71 output.
After many fluctuations, the output of foodgrains rose to 176 million tonnes in 1990-91 and
touched 213 million tonnes in 2001-02. On account of extensive drought conditions, the output
of foodgrains declined steeply to 174 million tonnes during 2002-03 (decline of 38 million tonnes

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