Sustainability and trends in profitability of Indian agriculture

The pattern of development and trends in productivity and profitability have been analysed to find whether Indian agriculture meets the requirements of sustainable develoment. The study is based on the secondary data culled from the publications of the Department of Agriculture and Department of Statistics, Govt. of India. A tremendous development and spectacular growth have been observed in agriculture during the past five decades, 1949–50 to 1999–2000. However, there has not been any spectacular modification in the technology since 1980s, leding to a continuous deceleration in the rates of growth of both production and productivity of most crops in recent years. Because of decline in yield, the economic condition of farmers has deteriorated. On the other side, nonagricultural sector has shown a growth of 6 per cent. This increasing disparity between per capita income of agricultural and non-agricultural sectors is likely to raise social disorder in the farming class.