1 Indian Agriculture: Recent Performance and Prospects in the Wake of

Following macro economic reforms introduced in the Indian economy in the early 1990s, and the reforms in the multilateral trading order brought about in the wake of GATT negotiations and setting up of WTO, the Indian agriculture has entered in to the phase of globalization and diversification. It is expected that the combined effect of the reforms in the domestic policies and international trade reforms would result in a much larger integration of the Indian economy with the rest of the world, and such a scenario would bring about substantial benefits to the Indian farmers. The reforms undertaken so far have however failed to bring about the expected gains to Indian farmers. The process of reforms is still continuing and it is hoped that once the negotiations on reforms conclude and the envisaged reforms are implemented in letter and spirit, the gains to Indian agriculture would be positive and substantial. To realize the expected gains from trade liberalization, apart from improvement in infrastructure, Indian agriculture would need to become more competitive. The recent deceleration of growth in Indian agriculture- both in production as well as in crop productivity- has however been a cause of worry. Unless this trend is reversed, India ma