Agriculture in the Era of Economic Reforms : Challenges and Strategies for Development Book

Contents: Introduction. 1. Agricultural reforms in India: locating the imperatives/S.K. Mishra and Dewendra Pratap Tiwari. 2. Rejuvenating Indian agriculture in a globalized regime: the case for small farmers/Sib Ranjan Misra. 3. Globalisation and agricultural sector in India/R. Balasubramaniyan. 4. Structural reforms in Indian economy and its impact on agricultural future/P.C. Tiwari. 5. Trends in land use pattern and agricultural production before and after economic reforms in India/C. Dhandapani. 6. Agrarian crisis and farmers suicides in India in the era of globalisation/N. Suresh Babu. 7. Globalization crop diversification and agricultural development/S.N. Tripathy. 8. Reforms in agriculture sector and food security in India/M.P. Singh and Vimal Shankar Singh. 9. Food security agricultural development in India/R. Kumar. 10. WTO and Indian agriculture: the implications for food security/K. Ramesh. 11. Indian agriculture: a discussion with special reference to WTO agreement/Kakali Majumdar. 12. WTO regime and emerging trends in Indian agriculture/Sudhansu Sekhar Nayak. 13. Impact of WTO agreements in Indian agriculture/G. Jayasankar. 14. Impact of WTO development of Indian agriculture/P.K. Punjabi and Ram Singh Rathor. 15. Differentials in agricultural productivity in India/Sukheet K. Saran and Mini Goyal. 16. The status of agriculture sector in the post reform period in North-East India/Subhabrata Chakrabarti and K.K. Bagchi. 17. Problems and prospects of agriculture in Sikkim: a critical appraisal/Anjan Chakrabarti and Sanchari Roy Mukherjee. 18. Regional variations in agriculture productivity of West Bengal: an analysis in relation to irrigation/Govinda Choudhury. 19. Impact of liberalization on economic of pepper cultivation in India/S. Jeyarani. 20. Credit and agricultural development/V.R. Deshpande. 21. Credit and empowerment of small farmers a study in Mysore district/M.S. Narasimhan and K. Sivachithappa. 22. Agricultural development through regional rural banks a case study of Mysore district in Karnataka/K. Sivachithappa. 23. Primary agricultural cooperative societies as a strategy for regional development a study in Mysore District/Krishnappa Madival and K. Sivachithappa.

The present volume deals with the issues related to challenges and strategies for development of the agricultural sector in the era of economic reforms. It is common knowledge that reforms in the agricultural sector in India have been introduced later than that in other sectors of the economy. Nonetheless the results of reforms initiated in this sector are now being manifested gradually. The prices of agricultural inputs are soaring while productivity has been plummeted and farmers are not getting remunerative prices. Per capita availability of food grains is on the decline. This is endangering the food security of the poor and marginalized section of the population. In this context it is also important to understand India’s competitive strength in the export of agricultural commodities under current WTO regime. All these issues have been argued upon in the 23 research papers included in this volume. In addition to identifying the problems the contributors have suggested measures to rectify the situation. The volume is expected to help policy makers to take appropriate policies for the development of agricultural sector by utilizing the opportunities of economic reforms. It is also expected to motivate future researchers to take up more issues on the topic for further exploration. (jacket)