Recent Trends in Agricultural Growth: Are We Running or Creeping? Pushpa, Nagrale Bulbul G., Chandel B.S., Chauhan A.K. Department of Dairy Economics, Statistics & Management, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132 001, Haryana Online published on 10 September, 2013. Abstract The study has discussed the trends in the growth of crop sector at the national level based on the secondary data collected from various published sources and websites for 7 major foodgrains and commercial crops of India for the period 1950–51 to 2011–12. The study has found that the cropping pattern in India has undergone significant changes with a shift from cultivation of foodgrains to commercial crops. The area under coarse cereals, generally cultivated in the dry regions, declined by 13.3 per cent between TE 1970–71 and TE 2007–08. The performance of pulses in terms of area and output was not impressive during the study period. Nevertheless, increase in crop yield has been a major factor for accelerating crop production in the country since late-1960s. The use of modern varieties, irrigation and fertilisers were the important aspects of higher growth in crop production in the country. However, technological and institutional support for a few crops like rice and wheat have brought significant changes in crop area and output composition in some regions. The FAO data has revealed that India is far below in production of even wheat and rice in comparison with China, USA, Japan and Egypt. Hence, there is potential for enhancing yield of major crops through better soil and water management, profitable crop rotation, innovative marketing, genetic engineering and investment in farm education and rural infrastructure. Top Keywords Agricultural growth, rice, wheat, output composition. Top |