ABSTRACT
India’s economic performance in the post-reform period has many positive features. For example, the Indian economy registered a highly impressive rate of growth of about 7 to 9 per cent per annum, during the past 10 years, especially since 2003–04. This made India one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. However, one of the challenging problems before the planners and policy makers in the recent past has been the relatively slow growth of agriculture (about 1.5 to 2.0 per cent per annum) while the overall Indian economy has been recording rapid growth. 1 The same is true in the case of other developing countries as well, where three of every four poor people live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods (World Bank 2008). The high growth of secondary and tertiary sectors in the 21st century notwithstanding, agriculture continues to be a fundamental instrument for sustainable development and poverty reduction.
