In the past 50 years, Indian agriculturehas undergone a major transformation, from dependence onfood aid to becoming a consistent net food exporter. Thegradual reforms in the agricultural sector (following thebroader macro-reforms of the early 1990s) spurred someunprecedented innovations and changes in the food sectordriven by private investment. These impressive achievementsmust now be viewed in light of the policy and investmentimperatives that lie ahead. Agricultural growth has improvedin recent years (averaging about 3.5 percent since 2004-05),but at a long-term trend rate of growth of 3 percent,agriculture has underperformed relative to its potential.The pockets of post-reform dynamism that have emergedevidently have not reached a sufficiently large scale toinfluence the sector's performance. For the vastpopulation that still derives a living directly orindirectly from agriculture, achieving "faster, moreinclusive, and sustainable growth', the objectives atthe heart of the Twelfth five year plan, depends criticallyon simultaneous efforts to improve agriculture'sperformance and develop new sources of employment for thedisproportionately large share of the labor force still onthe farm. The scope of this study is broad in the sense thatit marshals considerable empirical evidence and analyses toaddress those issues. Yet the scope is restricted in thesense that the study does not address all of the issues. Awealth of knowledge exists (and continuing analytical workproceeds) on other major strategic issues, water andirrigation management, food grain management, and publicexpenditures on agriculture, for example, and the findingsof this study must be seen in that context. The lack ofsufficient quality data, and often the lack of access tosuch data, also prevents some issues from being explored ingreater depth. Finally, some important issues require morefocused and dedicated analysis, such as food safety andquality standards, agricultural trade, and food priceincreases. This relationship between longer-term strategicissues and contemporary concerns, such as water resourcemanagement and food prices, are highlighted in this studythrough the prism of productivity, but they too requirefurther analysis to fully address the underlying issues.
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