Irrigation development and value of agricultural output in India: a multi-district analysis

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between irrigation and value of agricultural output across 235 districts in India. The analysis has been carried out for five different time points - 1971, 1981, 1991, 2003 and 2008. Both cross-section and panel regression have been carried out to examine how irrigation influences the value of agricultural output. While descriptive analysis shows a strong and positive relationship between irrigation and value of agricultural output, cross-section regression establishes significant impact of irrigation on the value of agricultural output. The results of fixed and random effects are also strongly consistent with the results of cross-section regression. Though, infrastructure and other variables also show significant and positive impact on the value of agricultural output, the impacts of irrigation was relatively stronger.