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The Agricultural Economy

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Economic Policy in a Liberalising Economy

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Economics ((BRIEFSECONOMICS))

Abstract

This chapter documents our approach to the development of India’s agricultural economy. It is a fascinating story of moving from shortages and a fixation for grain in the ship to mouth period to diversification and policy reform in a WTO trade dominated economy. It is a story of average growth, many policy experiments and persistence of poverty and regional inequality in the face of considerable technological strengths and a hard working peasantry exploited through the millennia.

Some of the material used in this chapter are from papers published by the author in The Indian Economic Journal, Journal of Quantitative Economics and CIGI and reports authored by the author for the Central Water Commission, and National Statistical Commission. The material is reproduced here with due acknowledgement and permission from the editors of the journals.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In a comical story, the author was asked by a World Bank Official in 1979 as to how India had exceeded its target of foodgrain production of 125 million tonnes in 1978/79 by producing 127 million tonnes; to which the author’s response was that he comes from Ahmedabad where they always keep reserves.

  2. 2.

    Verghese Kurien is rated as perhaps one of the most iconic Indians after the freedom movement. He built up the first successful case in a poor country of coperatives of landless and land short farmers, getting into prosperity. He remained in his rural lair in Anand District in Western India, all his life and built up a range of support organisations using the latest technology for small farmer and landless labourers projects with a special focus on women

  3. 3.

    Short run growth rates are of limited use

  4. 4.

    A thin stream, usually full of sewage and other wastes.

  5. 5.

    River that flows through the Indian city of Ahmedabad.

  6. 6.

    A district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central University of Gujarat, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

    Yoginder Kumar Alagh

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Alagh, Y.K. (2018). The Agricultural Economy. In: Economic Policy in a Liberalising Economy. SpringerBriefs in Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2817-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2817-6_3

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