6. Regional Variation and Convergence in Agricultural Development in India

This chapter makes an attempt to examine the growth performances of agricultural production and productivity of major states of India and the level of disparity in the performances of agriculture since 1970–1971. This chapter also explores the nature of cropping pattern and the trends of cropping pattern in India over the study period. The growth performances have been analysed considering three distinct phases of agricultural development in India, viz. the first phase of Green Revolution 1970–1971 to 1979–1980, second phase of Green Revolution 1980–1981 to 1990–1991, and the period after economic reform 1991–1992 to 2007–2008. The variability in agricultural output is partly due to the variability in agroclimatic conditions across the states and partly due to the variations in agricultural infrastructure. The agricultural infrastructural index, as constructed using principle component analysis, reveals the prevalence of a wide interstate variation. Moreover, using generalized method of moments (GMM) technique under the panel data framework, this chapter has examined the trends of convergence/divergence of per capita value of agricultural output over the period 1970–1971 to 2007–2008.