Temporal and Spatial Variations in Agricultural Growth and Its Determinants

The agriculture sector has gone through different phases of growth, embracing a wide variety of institutional interventions, and technology and policy regimes. From the late 1960s onwards, the green revolution helped the sector maintain steady growth for more than two decades. But the challenges that swept through the economy in the 1990s after the initiation of economic reforms arrested this growth. Conscious efforts have brought about a recovery of growth since the middle of the first decade of the 2000s. It is important to assess whether the recent turnaround is sustainable in the long run. This paper analyses the trends in agricultural productivity at the national and state levels and attempts to identify the major factors responsible for the varied performance of agriculture in different periods and in different states.