Economic Reforms and Indian Agriculture : A Comparative Analysis of Pre and Post Reform Era

Contents: Preface. Introduction. I. Indian agriculture in the pre-reforms era: 1. Phases of agricultural development. 2. An analysis of price and production under different phases. II. Indian agriculture in the post reforms era: 1. Overview of India\'s agricultural economy. 2. Analyzing agricultural performance in the post reforms era. 3. Comparing the performance against Tenth Five Year Plan targets. 4. Agricultural production: A comparative analysis of pre and post reform era. 5. Liberalizing and globalising: Indian agriculture. 6. Agricultural prices: A comparative analysis of pre and post reform era. 7. Trends in agricultural production and prices during the four sub-phases. 8. Comparing Indian agriculture vis-a-vis other countries (specially production and prices) in both pre and post reform era. III. Agricultural Prices Policy in India: 1. Objectives of the Agricultural Price Policy. 2. Price policy during 1947-64. 3. Price policy after 1964. 4. Minimum support/procurement prices. 5. Public Distribution System (PDS). 6. Agricultural Price Policy in India after reforms. IV. Issue of agricultural subsidy: 1. Input subsidies in Indian agriculture. 2. Support to Indian agriculture: Degree, direction and composition. 3. Subsidy: A cross-country view point. 4. The need for reforms. V. Impact of WTO on Indian agriculture: 1. Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). 2. Three fundamental clauses under AoA. 3. Sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures. 4. Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). 5. Emerging issues. 6. Some apprehensions and recent experiences Under Trade Liberalisation. 7. WTO negotiations and India. 8. India\'s experiences under WTO. 9. Export concentration/diversification. VI. Conclusion and policy recommendations. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. 

"India turns out to be an old long-standing agriculture dominant economy with history going back to Rig Vedas (8.22.6) where cultivators were used by Ashwini Devas to be followed by Manus and Rishis. In India Agriculture is not just a profession or a source of livelihood here, it is rather a way of life, a tradition, which, for centuries, has shaped the thought, the outlook, the culture and the economic life of the people.

The book aims at analyzing the long-term behaviour of agricultural prices and production in India. It takes the entire period after independence for discussion, as this has been the period in which the nation shrugging off the age-old subjugation and exploitation launched economic planning for rapid economic growth. Agriculture was accorded a prominent place in the development strategy that followed henceforth. With the advent of economic liberalisation and the adoption of WTO, the Indian agriculture is now exposed to the competitive environment in the global market. Now the Indian agriculture has to work under the new Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) which has got three fundamental clauses popularly known as: (i) Market Access (Tariffication) (ii) Export Subsidies, and (iii) Domestic Support. The focus of AoA under URA is to establish new operational rules and commitments in agriculture and trade policy by reconciling world production and trade, which are highly distorted. However, the developed and the developing countries are on the path of confrontation over the issue of subsidy to agriculture sector. The developed countries have classified the subsidy into different \'Boxes\' and framed the rules which suits them.

On the issue of Agricultural Trade in the post liberalisation and WTO era, the findings are that both exports as well as imports have increased in the post liberalisation era, but simultaneously the balance of trade due to agriculture has also improved. Further, exports have shown lower degree of instability as compared to imports. On the issue of export concentration/diversification, the result shows a greater degree of diversification during the reform period which reduces the instability as is evident from lower value of Cuddy-Della Valle index of instability.

The book after analyzing the contentious but all relevant aspects of Indian agriculture makes certain policy recommendations for the government. It is aspired that the adoption of these would definitely improve things for Indian agriculture." (jacket)