Indian Agriculture in Drought-Prone Areas: A Case Study of Maharashtra

Agriculture, being a biological activity is subjected to the vagaries of climatic condition. Moreover the drought prone areas are more exposed to frequent rain failures and consequently their agricultural production base is found to be extremely unstable and unpredictable. Therefore in such agriculture farmers are reluctant to adopt new technology in the production process due to uncertainty of return associated with the new technology. In this book an attempt has been made to study the problem of growth and instability in agricultural production in the drought prone areas of Maharashtra. If also tries to examine the magnitudes of inter-zonal variations in the growth rates and level of instability in agricultural production and to explore the linkage between growth and instability in agriculture. Moreover the findings of the study provide appropriate guidelines for the development of agriculture in the drought-prone areas. It is emphasised that a different policy packages for the agricultural development of the drought prone areas all over the country in very desired. Hence an exclusive treatment is required.