Madhya Pradesh (MP) has achieved a double digit growth, with an average agricultural growth rate of 13.9 % over the five-year period 2010-15 — delivering a cumulative growth of 92 % over the period.
MP’s record stands out against the backdrop of an all-India growth rate for agriculture of less than 4 %.
What are the contributory factors?
There has been a massive spread of irrigation, a sharp increase in power supply for agriculture, and better access to markets because of improved rural road connectivity. Yield levels have soared.
The state’s crop acreage has increased, and more farmers are now able to do a third crop in the year.
MP has become second only to Punjab in its contribution to the central wheat pool.
Does MP replicate its success in other fields?
Unusually, though, MP has not been able to replicate its success in agriculture in the rest of the economy — not in industry, and not in services.
This is most unusual as well as counter-intuitive because rapid growth of farm output should ordinarily lead to growth in transport and trade, finance and electricity use, not to speak of an increase in personal consumption.
And in manufacturing too: Punjab’s Green Revolution was accompanied by the industrialisation of the state because of the production of agricultural implements, tractors, bicycles, textiles and garments.
Because MP’s growth in agriculture has not been matched by other sectors, the state’s overall economic growth rate improved only marginally at first, and lagged the national average.
Then it began to match the national growth rate; in the most recent years, MP has become the fastest-growing among the major states.
Is MP’s agricultural track record sustainable?
In 2010, the state had the advantage of a low base in terms of both output and productivity (yield per hectare).
But even now, despite the improvements of recent years, its numbers are below the all-India averages for crop yield, fertiliser use and other yardsticks; the granary states of Punjab and Haryana are of course well above the national average.
So while MP has 10.4 % of the country’s gross cropped area, it accounts for only 8.6 % of the value addition in agriculture.
That should mean the state still has headroom for growth but probably at a slower rate because it cannot expand its irrigation capacity and crop acreage as rapidly as in the past.
