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Accelerating growth through globalisation of Indian agriculture
Project ID
ADP/1994/026
Project Country
Commissioned Organisation
Australian National University, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australia
Project Leader
Dr K P Kalirajan
Phone:
02 6125 3096
Fax:
02 6125 3700
Project Budget
$494,702.00
Start Date
01/07/1996
Finish Date
30/06/1999
Extension Start Date
01/07/1999
Extension Finish Date
31/12/1999
ACIAR Research Program Manager
Dr Donna Brennan
Related publications
Overview Objectives
The aim of this project was to review existing agricultural policies and identify factors that restrict growth potential. It sought to detect inefficiencies resulting from organisational and non-price factors as well as policies. Using computer models, project participants could advocate policy changes to improve resource allocation and the distribution of benefits of economic growth.
Project Background and Objectives
India at present is self-sufficient in food and has stocks of some 34 million tonnes of wheat and rice. In terms of total annual output of wheat, rice and rapeseed, the nation ranks highly in the world. However, average yield per hectare is poor. Previous modelling studies have concentrated on supply of inputs in agricultural and manufacturing production. They have also assumed that producers use technological advances as soon as they are available. It is now thought that demand for outputs is an important stimulus to growth, as well as the general recognition of the inefficient uptake of technology.
Economic analysts suggest that, were the Government of India (GOI) to procure grain by paying international market prices, the surplus by year 2000 could be 100 million tonnes. They also maintain that government subsidies on fertilisers have caused inefficient use of scarce resources reducing average farm incomes.
Project Outcomes
Throughout the project, progress was reported by team leaders and discussed with some 10 prominent Indian research economists and policy-makers from the Indian Planning Commission; Ministry of Rural Areas and Employment, Government of India; State Planning Commission, Tamil Nadu; Agricultural Economic Research Centre, Delhi; Delhi School of Economics, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Delhi; Andhra University and Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. The project outputs included two books authored by project participants.
Three workshops were conducted to disseminate the objectives and the final results of the project to policy-makers and economists in India. The first was in 1998, on econometric methods of measuring productivity. Participants were from leading institutions such as the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta; Delhi School of Economics; Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi; Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore; Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum; Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai; Tamil Nadu Agricultural University; and Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad. The workshop enabled dissemination of the frontier production function approach to a wide audience.
The second workshop was the project conclusion workshop in 1999, at which the project results and methodologies were critically discussed in relation to project objectives. The third workshop was an International Conference on Second Generation Reforms in India, also held in 1999. At this workshop, project leaders were able to give international exposure to results and methodology of the project.
The Proceedings of this workshop were subsequently published in 2003, further disseminating the work of the project internationally. After the project ended, the state-level and all-India results that came out of the project continued to be disseminated.
The project has led to increased awareness by farmers about the potential to improve yields and increase agricultural incomes. Farmers and policy-makers also better understand the importance of food processing and export of processed foods, the role of the WTO in facilitating agricultural growth in developing countries (especially India), and the effects on agriculture of changing some policies such as education expenditure and infrastructure.
Location
There are no project locations defined for this project.
