Determinants and Competitiveness of Agricultural Exports in India

This study has identified the factors affecting the export of rice and its competitiveness has been analyzed with respect to world and major export destinations of India. The study is based on time series data from 1990 to 2011 and has used OLS technique for identifying the determinants of export and RCA and RSCA index for finding competitiveness. The study has revealed that exchange rate and domestic prices are the significant factors, having negative relationship with the export quantity. The international prices and world rice export have also been found significant showing positive relationship with rice export. The selected variables have explained 90 per cent of the variations in rice export and the model used has been found to be significant. The results of competitiveness have indicated that RCA index values are greater than one and RSCA values are positive for all the reference countries and the world. The study has found that only production is the controlled variable, whereas other variables like total export, international prices, exchange rate, etc. are not in the control of the policymakers. Therefore, production will have to be increased through yield improvement measures. The results of RCA/RSCA index values have revealed that India enjoys the comparative advantage in rice export to major export destinations, viz. UAE, Saudi Arab, Kuwait, UK and USA.