Getting Punjab Agriculture Back on High Growth Path: Sources, Drivers and Policy Lessons

Abstract

Our study reveals that Punjab seems to have become a victim of its own success. After Independence, India had to often rely on food grain imports whenever the monsoons were below normal. The situation became acute when India faced back to back drought in mid 1960s, and heavy imports of wheat under PL 480 made it look as if the country was living "from ship to mouth". No wonder, highest priority for the policymakers was to achieve self sufficiency in food grain production. Green revolution strategy was adopted, with high yielding variety seeds imported from Mexico, and distributed in well endowed regions of Punjab, Haryana and western UP. Simultaneously an effective procurement system with remunerative minimum support prices (MSP) was erected. New technology with good price incentives played wonders, and India attained self sufficiency in grains within 5 years.