Changes of Agriculture Production in India after Green Revolution

Abstract

This paper examines the factors responsible for instability in area, yield and production for major crops in India from 19501951 to 20012002. This period is divided into a pre-Green Revolution and post-Green Revolution, with each period analyzed separately as well as jointly. Further, a similar analysis is done for rice yields for the top five producing states. The results show that the sources of growth of crop production have been achieved primarily from yield increases, especially since the introduction of the Green Revolution technology. Area cultivated did expand, but this expansion was not rapid enough to generate the realized production changes. Results for the Green Revolution technology impact on instability are somewhat mixed. The purest measure of crop instability, coefficient of variation, shows a decrease in production instability for wheat, total cereals, sugarcane, and total pulses for all of India. The remaining 10 crops and crop groups show an increase in production instability. Measures of dispersion for crop instability show similar results, but the interpretation of these results is less transparent because these measures involve covariances between area and yields and other interactions effects. Overall, many of the problems associated with production instability continue to persist, and the challenge to find increased stability continues.