@article{Rada:262202,
      recid = {262202},
      author = {Rada, Nicholas E. and Schimmelpfennig, David E.},
      title = {Propellers of Agricultural Productivity in India},
      address = {2015-12-01},
      number = {1477-2017-3968},
      series = {Economic Research Report 203},
      pages = {52},
      year = {2015},
      abstract = {India’s decelerating wheat- and rice-yield growth rates  have led to questions of whether  India’s agricultural  sector will be able to meet future food demands. To explore  this  issue, ERS researchers measure sector-level  agricultural total factor productivity (TFP)  growth and  evaluate how public policies affected TFP from 1980 to  2008. During this  period, substantial regional differences  in TFP growth emerged: the Indian West and  South achieved  faster TFP growth than the rest of the country, largely due  to rapid  growth in horticulture and animal products. Of  the policies hypothesized to stimulate  TFP, India’s public  agricultural research and higher education programs had the  greatest  effect on TFP growth, followed by public  investments in irrigation infrastructure.  These effects  propelled TFP in Northern and Western India more than in  the rest of the  country. Groundwater irrigation from wells  accelerated TFP more than surface-water  irrigation from  canals. Other drivers of TFP growth included research  investments of  international institutions and an emerging  private sector. Public investment in rural  education has  had mixed effects, depending on education levels. These  findings support  an optimistic view that Indian  agriculture will be able to meet the broadening spectrum   of future food demands. Critical to that optimism, though,  is continued innovation from  public and private research  systems, especially in seed development, and from  irrigation  and high-value-commodity production  technologies.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/262202},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.262202},
}