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Agriculture and Food Security - Agriculture Growth in AP -
Ongoing |
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Agricultural Growth in Andhra Pradesh :
Performance and Prospects |
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| Project Director |
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S.Subramanyam |
| Sponsored
by |
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Reserve Bank of India |
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The objectives of this Study sponsored by the Reserve Bank of India were to study |
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trends in area, yield and production of principal crops in Andhra Pradesh; |
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study the trends in factor productivity; |
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| c) |
compare the yield levels in A.P with those prevailing in other states in India; |
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| d) |
identify the constraints operating to improve the yield. |
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In contrast to the experience at the national level, Andhra Pradesh experienced significant acceleration in agricultural growth in the first phase of green revolution. These high growth rates of dry crops resulted in a
broad-based and balanced regional development.
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The second phase of green revolution almost maintained the growth rate attained in the first phase due to shift in the cropping pattern from low valued coarse cereals to high valued crops like oilseeds, cotton and pulses. But yield growth rates were in general lower than in the green revolution period, except for rice, red gram, black gram and
chilies. Non-food grains experienced acceleration in production due to expansion in area. Thus, regions with dominance of rice or those which shifted from coarse cereals to groundnut or cotton attained a higher growth rate than others. The state experienced steep deceleration in growth in the nineties. The growth of aggregate crop output declined from 3.4 per cent in the eighties to 2.3 per cent in the nineties. Growth rates of yields of all the important crops decelerated.
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Some of the pertinent questions in this context are: How was high acceleration in growth attained in the first phase and maintained in the second phase? Why has the decade of nineties turned to be a period of steep deceleration? Can the pattern be explained in terms of investment or area expansion or intensity of input use or productivity of inputs? There was not much expansion in net area even in the
pre-green revolution period. In the first and second phases of green revolution it started declining and the rate of decline was high in the second phase. This may be one reason for growth not accelerating in the second phase. The more distressing fact is the decline in the growth in the nineties despite increase in the net area. In fact gross cropped area attained a growth rate of 0.6 per cent per annum during this period. The increase in the gross cropped area resulted in increase in the cropping intensity from 117 to 123 per cent, a change in the desired direction. This expansion in area could not compensate the decline in the growth rates of yield.
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