Nature and sources of agricultural growth in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh

This paper uses the growth accounting approach to analyse the growth of the agricultural sector. It identifies the sources of growth in the crop sector in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for the period 2004–05 to 2016–17 following. Crop sector in both the states grew at a slower rate and livestock sector grew at a rate of 4.5% in Andhra Pradesh compared to 1.14% in Uttar Pradesh. Agriculture sector as a whole grew at 2.7% in Andhra Pradesh and 1.56% in Uttar Pradesh. Increase in real prices and technological change accounted for bulk of the output growth in the crop sector whereas diversification and area expansion accounted for smaller fraction of the growth. Between the states, Andhra Pradesh did better than Uttar Pradesh in terms of contribution of price, technology and diversification effects. The latter accounted for only 0.4% of growth in Uttar Pradesh. In both the states, the contribution of area expansion was either marginal or negative showing the limited scope for considering an extensive agriculture as a source of further growth in agriculture. Thus, there is a need for promoting diversification by investing in processing, marketing and institutional infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh. Considering the diversity of agricultural setting in both the states, only a regionally differentiated approach to research, extension and infrastructure development seems appropriate.