An Econometric Analysis of Agricultural Trade in Selected Crops

Agriculture in India is predominantly rain fed. Agricultural production fluctuates with the vagaries of rainfall in addition to the socio-economic factors. Low yield per unit area across major crops has become a regular feature of Indian agriculture in recent years. Some of the reasons for the low agricultural productivity in our country are (i) lack of sufficient irrigation facilities in major parts of the cultivated land; and (ii) lack of timely availability of quality seeds and fertilizers for the major crops in many parts of the country. Productivity of Indian agriculture is low as compared to the productivity at the global level. Estimates of yield of rice as of April 2011 in India were 3.2 tonnes per hectare as against 7.5 tonnes per hectare in the United States, 6.7 tonnes per hectare in China and an average of 4.3 tonnes per hectare for the World. Also many studies revealed that there is wide variation in productivity of major crops across the States/ Regions in India.