2. Trends in Agricultural Production and Productivity Growth in India: Challenges to Sustainability

According to estimation of nutrition experts, the average daily requirement of cereals for an average Indian adult is 412.2 grams. For pulses, it is estimated to be 67.95 grams per day. Total requirement for cereals in the year 1950–1951(with a population of 361 million) was 54.31 million tons while production was 42.42 million tons, accounting for a deficit of 11.89 million tons, which is 28% of total production. Similarly, for pulses, the requirement was 8.95 million tons whereas production was 8.41 million tons, accounting for a marginal deficit of 0.54 million tons. For total food grains, the requirement was 63.26 million tons while production was 50.83 million tons, accounting for a deficit of 12.42 million tons. This resulted in an increase in import of food grains on a large scale, accounting for the bulk of the import bill. In addition, food security was under threat. Conversely, in the year 2015–2016, the total food-grains requirement was 232.28 million tons (with population of 1326 million) whereas production was t 251.57 million tons with a surplus of 19.29 million tons. However, India still lacks in production of pulses. In 2015–2016, production was16.35 tons against a requirement of 32.88 tons, which led to imports of pulses.