Statewise Trends In Rural Income, Output Growth And Input Use In Indian Agriculture

India has recorded fairly high growth rates in its agricultural output during the post green revolution period, but the achievement has been restricted to selected pockets and crops. Consequently, the level of income from agriculture sector, per capita of rural population, showed an increase in the siates which were better endowed to adopt the new technology, and it declined or remained stagnant in the states where the new technology could not spread. This has led to sharp increase in inter-state disparities in rural incomes, contrary to our national goal to attain growth with equity. Growth rates achieved in area, production and yield of major crops in different states explain, to a large extent, the variation in inter-state rural incomes, and enables us to assess the performance of agriculture sector of each state. The spatial and temporal variations in the use of critical farm inputs, viz., fertilizer, inigation, high yielding varieties seed and electricity, was found to be an important factor in explaining the regional imbalances in the level of agricultural development.