Pulses and Food Grains in Punjab: Growth and Instability

Although India is the world’s largest producer of pulses, the country is importing a large amount of pulses to meet the growing domestic consumption. The demand for consumption of pulses is growing rapidly. Punjab is the most progressive agricultural state of India but production of pulses is decreasing year after year. This paper attempts to study growth performance, variability and instability of pulses and food grains in Punjab state. The study is based on secondary data collected from statistical abstracts of Punjab for the years 1960-61 to 2009-10. The study had shown that growth rate of pulses production decreased significantly during this period. It was -8.09 per cent per annum during sixties and decreased to -9.16 per cent per annum during 2000-01 to 2009-10. This happened due to significant decrease in area i.e. -7.17 per cent for whole period under pulses, whereas production of food grains increased at the rate of 4.62 per cent per annum i.e. five times because of significant increase in area and yield of food grains. The instability in production of pulses is much higher i.e. up to 35.74 per cent. Variability and instability increased in pulses but decreased in food grains.