Instability in Indian Agriculture during Different Phases of Technology and Policy

Abstract

The issue of instability attracted lot of attention of researchers in the early phase of adoption of green revolution technology. It was found that adoption of new technology had increased instability in foodgrains and agricultural production in India. This conclusion was based on the period when improved technology had reached very small area. This study shows that when a little longer period is taken into consideration, which witnessed spread of improved technology to large area, the inference on increase in instability due to adoption of new technology get totally refuted. Production of foodgrains and total crop sector was much more stable in the recent period compared to pre green revolution and first two decades of green revolution in the Country. This indicates that Indian agriculture has developed a resilience to absorb various shocks in supply caused by climatic and other factors. There is large variation in instability in foodgrains production across states. Very high risk is involved in foodgrains production in the states of Maharahtra, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.