Studies in Indian agriculture and rural development / V.S. Mahajan

Agriculture and rural development play an important part in the overall growth rate of Indian economy. Despite industrialisation and occupying an important place among the industrialised countries in the world, India is by and large an agricultural country with a vast segment of her population engaged in agriculture and allied pursuits. Though in the first three five year plans, it was industrialisa tion that had been accorded priority higher than agriculture and rural development, in the fourth, fifth and sixth five year plans agriculture and rural development began to receive especial care and a high priority. In the Seventh Five Year Plan great importance has been given to the all-round development of the rural economy.

In this important book the learned authors, all experts, discuss in detail the growth of agri culture; crop production in India; agricultural productivity and production; determinants of agricultural growth and development in India; comparative study of China and India; nutri tion and food; essential forestry; fertiliser consumption and problems; rural resources generation and mobilisation; agricultural credit; prices, distribution and rural poverty; food security, public stocks and production of foodgrains; poverty in rural India; barriers in rural development; role of voluntary agencies in rural development; women participation in Indian agriculture; regional growth of agri culture; institutional financing of rural develop ment schemes; new agricultural inter-sectoral movement of rural manpower: recent strategies: trends agricultural production; in planning for poverty alleviation; problems of agricultural development in tribal areas; and, shifting cultivators and their problems.

This book will be of great use to teachers, scholars and students of economics, agriculture and rural development, planners and policy makers, experts in various institutions, and to government and voluntary agencies concerned with agriculture and rural development.