Our Agrarian Future

This paper highlights the extant and the emerging role of agriculture in the Asian region by reviewing the past performance and postulating the conditions for sustainable growth. In the first section, attention is drawn to the initial conditions impacting on the pace and pattern of economic growth. In the second section, the performance of agriculture is reviewed on well established parameters, bringing out the pattern of growth witnessed during the last two decades or so and discussing the exogenous and endogenous factors responsible for changes in this sector. The third section takes a medium-term view of the likely changes in the demand and supply conditions affecting Asian agriculture and the economic environment it is likely to face. In the fourth and final section key issues which have ramifications for achieving a sustainable and humane development in the region are outlined.