Research Priorities in Indian Agriculture

Indian Agriculture has made a rapid stride in the past three decades making the country self-sufficient in foodgrains. The most important factor responsible for such an achievement is the technological innovation in agricultural production which, in turn, is brought about by agricultural research, both within and outside the country. In the developmental dynamics technological changes are inevitable to occur and with the economic liberalisation agricultural research and technology generation has become highly competitive, both domestically and internationally. Privatisation is being considered an alternative to public research to make research more relevant, meaningful and efficient. However, research resource as compared to any other resource is in shorter supply, especially in qualitative terms and hence an optimal allocation of this scarce resource is of paramount importance. Furthermore, in view of globalisation of our economy and the establishment of the World Trade Organisation, changes in cropping patterns, infra-structural and institutional facilities are bound to take place and policy analysis aiming at allocation of research resource among commodities and regions has not only to take a hard look at the present realities but also to objectively assess the probable changes in the future so that a near-optimal allocation is possible and research becomes the mainspring of development. Since research results have a longer gestation period the task of prioritisation of research has become all the more difficult. In this study an attempt has been made to identify commodity and regional priorities for investment in agricultural research. The methodology in general and the criteria in particular used in this study are simple, albeit soft and sloven with a number of restrictive assumptions, and leave the scope for further debate wide open. Notwithstanding these shortcomings the results provide broad guidelines which would probably improve the research resource allocation decision of research administrators and planners.