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As a result of the rapid production growth of wheat, which was a minor crop in India at the
time of independence, however, the production of wheat exceeded that of the coarse cereals (such as
jowar, bajra, ragi and maize) by the end of the 1970s in India (Figure 3, Figure 4).
3. During the 1980s
The decade of the 1980s witnessed a very favorable growth rates in the agricultural sector,
including almost all the regions of the country and almost all the important crop sectors (Table 1).
The rapid increase of rice production during the 1980s, which is an important staple food in eastern
and southern India, was especially essential for the development of hitherto poverty-struck rural
areas in India (Figure 5).
The most important factor behind the overall rapid growth of the agricultural sector in India
was a widespread diffusion of private tube-wells (especially small-scale shallow tube-wells). The
diffusion of tube-wells in formerly rain-fed areas (or unreliably irrigated areas by government
canals) enabled to grow HYV wheat instead of rabi crops such as pulses in the dry season (rabi
season), and in the monsoon season (kharif season) the yield of rice was increased substantially by
switching the varieties from traditional to modern types (HYVs). Thus the highly productive
rice-wheat cropping pattern was established in a wide area of rural India, especially in the Gangetic
Basin. Furthermore, in some places with a plenty of rainfall such as West Bengal２, double cropping
of HYV rice was widely disseminated.
There had been a controversy in India among economists regarding the reason why new
agricultural technologies were not accepted for long in eastern India, in sharp contrast with northern
and some other parts of India. It was argued by some Marxist economists that the „semi-feudal mode
of production‟ system in eastern India (represented by agrarian structure with small numbers of big
landlord and large numbers of indebted poor sharecroppers) was ultimately attributed to it (Bhaduri,
1973). Against this argument, however, Newberry (1974) tried to refute it from the theoretical
viewpoint and Bardhan and Rudra (1978) did so empirically.

Table 1 Growth Rate of Crop Production in India
1950～60 1960～70 1970～80 1980～90 1990～96
Rice
4.53
2.12
1.73
4.08
1.60
Wheat
5.79
7.73
4.15
4.29
3.64
Coarse grains
3.76
1.67
0.55
0.71
-0.99
Maize
7.84
3.90
0.64
3.20
1.30
Total
4.45
3.10
2.07
3.38
1.81
Pulses
3.80
-0.47
-1.18
2.45
-0.07
Total Foodgrains
4.35
2.63
1.76
3.31
1.66
Oilseeds
3.05
2.41
1.34
6.01
4.16
Sugarcane
5.62
2.54
2.27
4.38
3.72
Cotton
4.54
2.03
2.69
3.23
4.51
Jute/Mesta
5.60
0.32
2.13
1.28
2.18
Note.The data are three year moving averages.