An Overview

The agriculture sector provides livelihood to about 64 per cent of Gross Domestic Product and accounts for about about 18 per cent share of the total value of the country's exports. It supplies bulk of wage goods required by the non-agricultural sector and raw material for a large section of industry. Per capita net availability of foodgrains went up to a level of 467 grams per day in 1999-2000 as compared to that of 395 grams in the early fifties. In terms of gross fertilizers consumption, India ranks fourth in the world after USA, the erstwhile USSR and China. The country has the largest area in the world under pulse crops while in the field of cotton, India is the first to evolve a cotton hybrid. The estimated production of rice at 87.5 million tonnes in 1999-2000 is 1.5 million tonnes higher than 1998-1999 production of 86 million tonnes despite damage to the rice crop in Orissa. This is an increase of 1.7 per cent in production. The estimated production of coarse cereals is 29.2 million tonnes as against 31.5 million tonnes produced last year, a decline by about 2.2 million tonnes or about 7 per cent compared to 1998-99. The coarse cereals suffered both on account of lower area coverage due to rainfall deficiency in initial phase of monsoon and productivity fall in later phase of monsoon. The production of pulses this year is expected to be 13.6 million tonnes as against 14.8 million tonnes produced last year. This is a decrease of 1.2 million tonnes (8.2 per cent). Higher output of rice is unlikely to offset fully the decline in production of coarse cereals snd wheat. Hence estimated foodgrains output of 199.1 million tonnes in 1999-2000 would be lower by about 4 million tonnes representing a decrease of 1.9 per cent over the preceding year. Overall , the growth in 1999-2000 of agriculture and allied sectors is likely to be only 0.8 per cent compared to a growth of 7.2 per cent last year. This outcome may turn out to be better than predicted as the widespread rainfall in the second week of February in the northern states augurs well for the rabi crop prospects, especially wheat.

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