The rich gets richer & the poor, poorer

WASHINGTON: India’s recent growth has had a strong urban bias: while the services sector is booming, agricultural productivity has declined, adversely affecting the country’s poor depending on agriculture for their livelihood, according to a new World Bank report.

The role of agricultural research and development is critical to enhance agricultural productivity, said the report on the launch of a $200m National Agricultural Innovation Project to help increase agricultural productivity in the country.

The slowdown in agricultural growth is of special concern in the green revolution states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh that have traditionally been the bread basket of the country, accounting for 74% of India’s wheat and 26% of its rice production.

Their declining agricultural growth is therefore raising concerns about continued food security, it said. It was also a concern in the poorer states of Bihar and Orissa where dependence on agriculture is high and rural poverty persists. The use of inputs such as fertilisers, other agrochemicals, improved seed varieties and irrigation appears to have had a limited impact on agricultural growth, the report said.

Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh use the largest amount of these inputs, but in the 1990s the southern and western states recorded faster agricultural growth than the national average despite their limited use of these inputs and less access to irrigation.

The southern and western states have also recorded the highest degree of crop diversification. The northern region continues to specialise in food grains, particularly in rice and wheat, encouraged by favourable government price support policies for these commodities.

India has ample scope to increase its yields of several major crops substantially. Its rice yields, for example, are about half those in Vietnam and Indonesia. With limited scope to expand area under cultivation, the role of agricultural R&D is critical to enhance agricultural productivity.

Indian agriculture will have to shift from resource and input based growth to knowledge and science-based growth, triggered by innovations and the application of science to agriculture.

Similarly, in marginal and disadvantaged areas where it is difficult to expand irrigation, technological advancements complemented with institutional and policy support, can improve productivity, the World Bank report said.