An Overview of Agrarian Economy in India: Performance and Determinants

This paper evaluates the performance and progress of Indian agriculture since independence. In addition, this paper also analyzes sources of agricultural growth and determinants of agricultural production. Decomposition test is used to analyze the sources of agricultural growth and the production function approach is used to analyze the determinants of agricultural production from the period 1950/51 to 2005/06. This study indicates that there is a scope to increase both net sown area and gross sown area. The decomposition analysis indicates that rising output per hectare is the predominant source of agricultural growth for most of the crops and crop groups. The estimation of aggregate agricultural production function with both intercept and slope dummy indicates that land significantly affected the agricultural output growth during 1950/51-1964/65 and after that it became less significant and now labor and capital are significantly affecting the agricultural output growth.