Summary and Conclusions

This chapter has summarized the results and conclusions of theoretical analysis and econometric exercises on the issues of technological change, conservation of natural resources and sustainability of agricultural growth in this book. In the objective and scheme of this book, the importance of the above three issues have been discussed in an interrelated and comprehensive manner using sound analytical frameworks and econometric evidences. In fact, the problems of agricultural growth can not be analysed independent of resource management and technological progress. Agriculture in India, like in many other developing countries, has achieved remarkable growth in the last four decades by large scale adoption of high yielding variety seed, use of chemical inputs and expansion of irrigation. These factors have caused serious damage to natural resources like land and water. So, conservation of soil fertility, use of resource friendly inputs, efficient management of water resource have become very important. Major aspects of technological change, crop diversification, soil health, rain water harvest, externality problems in resource use, role of the government in resource management have been the main focus of this study. The sustainability of growth in agriculture has been viewed from a broader perspective encompassing geography, soil and agro-climatic conditions, rainfall, cropping pattern and overall environment. Both for productivity growth and conservation of resources, the role of technology, particularly the frontiers of biotechnology, irrigation technology, information technology has been highly emphasized. The results obtained in this study are very relevant to all other developing countries.