Impact of Economic Reform and Agriculture Growth in India

  • R Kumar Guest Faculty, Department of Economics, Presidency College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
  • E B Mary Raveena Part-Time, Ph.D., Research Scholar, Department of Economics, Presidency College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Keywords: Economic liberalisation, living standard, policy makers, employment, public investment, learning goal

Abstract

Agriculture in India has undergone rapid transformation in the past two decades. The policies of globalization and liberalization have opened up new avenues for agricultural modernization. Due to its importance in national output and employment, agriculture was given special attention by India’s policy makers and development planners which helped this sector to play an important role in economic development of the country and in improving income and living standard of vast population dependent on agriculture. During last one and a half decade several challenges have surfaced are becoming more and more severe with the passage of time. The growth rate has turned lower than the growth in population dependent on agriculture implying the per capita income in agriculture is falling. Economic liberalisation entails a set of measures that are inimical to petty production in general, and agriculture in particular. In that sense, these policies have a distinct class bias against petty producers and the poor. These policy pursuits resulted in a reduction of public investment in rural infrastructure, including irrigation, agricultural research and extension services and a decline in the supply of rural credit to small and poor cultivators, and the pursuit of agricultural trade liberalisation.

Published
2017-10-30
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