Fifty years of Indian agriculture / Ali Mohammad, Abdul Munir and Hifzur Rehman

V1 : Production and self-sufficiency V.2 : Determinants of production

After independence it was a challenge to the planners to develop the agriculture to achieve the self-sufficiency because of depressing picture of Indian agriculture with the beginning of the planning. During the British period over 80 per cent of the sown area was under foodgrains cultivation and yet the total output of foodgrains was insufficient for the needs of the country. A large part of the farming was of subsistence nature and 25 per cent area was under irrigation and the rest of 75 per cent had to depend on rainfall associated with drought-dry spells and high level of fluctuation was the chief characteristics of production causing food insecurity.In these two volumes, attempts have been made to find out all possible positive and negative factors to achieve the much-cherished aim of food security in general and among poorest segments of population in particular.