Answer:Many people know that Gujarat is one of the star performers when it comes to overall economic growth. But how many know that Gujarat is an outstanding performer in agriculture, growing at 9.6% per annum since 2000-01? Though there is high volatility in agriculture growth rates for almost all states, the performance of Gujarat’s agriculture is more than thrice the all-India figure, and certainly way above that of UP and West Bengal, two large agricultural states.
Surprisingly, even Bihar is doing much better (at more than 4% per annum) than all-India performance (see figure). This makes one curious to know what are the drivers of agricultural growth in Gujarat; and if Gujarat has managed to excel in agriculture, why not others?
IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) research points to three main sources of growth in Gujarat’s agriculture: (1) cotton output soared from 3.05 million bales (of 170 kg each) in 2002/03 to 11.2 million bales in 2007/08, primarily driven by Bt cotton since 2002; (2) the rapid growth of the high value segment, ie, livestock, fruits & vegetables.
While Gujarat’s dairy success is well known, which is growing at 6-7% per annum on sustainable basis, the recent phenomenon of high growth comes from fruits and vegetables (dominated by banana, mango, potato and onions) that has grown at almost 12.8% during 2000/01 to 2007/08; (3) the third main source of growth comes from wheat—after a low of 0.6 million tonnes in 2000/01, production jumped to 3.8 million tonnes in 2007/08- an average annual growth rate of 28%!
Technology development and diffusion is a key driver of agricultural growth, fuelling cotton production, raising both the production frontier as well as farmers’ incomes substantially. While the public sector has played a role in production and distribution of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds like wheat, the private seed sector has taken a lead in developing and promoting the use of Bt Cotton seeds. In Gujarat alone, 26 private seed companies have registered 113 varieties of BT Cotton. Not only has the yield more than doubled in just five to six years, at present more than 50% of the total cotton area in Gujarat has come under Bt cotton.
The second key driver is increased access to water. Gujarat is a drought-prone state, with an irrigation cover of just 36% of gross cropped area. Increased water supply from Sardar Sarovar project, higher investments in check-dams and watersheds (as of June 2007, a total of 2, 97,527 check dams, boribunds and Khet Talavadi (farm ponds) had been constructed by the state in cooperation with NGOs and the private sector), and of course, good rainfall for the past few years has helped propel growth.
Concerted efforts to recharge water table, regulate electricity for agricultural use (by separating feeder lines for irrigation and other uses under the Jyotigram scheme) as well as providing high subsidy to farmers with modern water saving technologies like drip irrigation is a key development. Investment in water management and supply for agriculture has led to increased irrigated area under wheat, cotton and fruits & vegetables that have boosted production. Continuing investment in roads since the nineties have paid off, as there are good quality roads even in most rural areas (98.74% of villages are connected by pucca roads).
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