Patterns in Indian agricultural development : a district level study.

Indian agriculture has witnessed a substantial development and change in its level of production, cropping pattern and intensity of input use since Independence. The spatial spread of the changes and the resulting benefits from these developments have, however, not been shared uniformly by different parts of the country. The fact of uneven agricultural development has a variety of implications and raises several policy relevant questions.

Some of these issues emerged in the Performance of Indian Agriculture -A District-wise study by G.S. Bhalla and Y.K. Alagh. The period covered in the study was between the triennia ending 1964-65 and 1972-73. The need for updating this study was felt in a meeting among Prof. Manmohan Singh, the then Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Prof. Y. K. Alagh, Prof. G. S. Bhalla and Dr. D.S.Tyagi and others. A formal proposal in this regard was made under the auspices of the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID). The Planning Commission agreed to provide the requisite funds for this project. The work on the project was initiated in October 1987 with Prof. G.S. Bhalla and Dr. D.S.Tyagi as the Honorary Directors. The study is based on the data at the district level and covers three representative years each of the 'sixties, 'seventies and 'eighties. The present study not only updates the information and analysis of spatial patterns of level and growth of agricultural output upto the triennium ending 1982-83 but also widens the analysis in a few more respects.

A direct outcome of the present study lies in the initiation of a process towards building up of a district-wise data base on different developmental aspects of the Indian economy. The collection and compilation of information and data on agriculture would now be extended to include some variables that could help capture the nature of growth of overall development at the regional level, with district as a unit. The impact of agricultural growth on overall development of the district needs to be further examined by identifying economic activities which get generated because of strong forward and backward linkages. There has been a general impression that the districts which have experienced rapid agricultural development have also been the ones to record appreciable growth in non-agricultural activities specially in the small scale and service sectors. On the other hand, the agriculturally lagging districts have tended to remain relatively backward in non-agricultural activities also. We do hope that the agricultural data base that has been generated in the process of this study would also suggest a number of policy oriented investigations. For instance, the Planning Commission has already made use of these data in the preparation of 'Framework Action Plan for Foodgrains Production' and for formulating appropriate policies for agricultural development for different agro-climatic regions.