I was surprised to take note of two articles published in the Business Standard today on Gujarat. One was related to Agriculture and the other on Port Development. In an interesting article written by Shankar Acharya, Gujarat has shown impressive agricultural grwoth over the last decade. The article put this growth at 11.7 %, one of the highest growth witnessed in the country while the national average is at 3%. The author has identified the following reasons for this growth
1. Water conservation and water management programme
2. Well coordinated extension services
3. Successful overhaul of rural electricity distribution
4. Support to livestock development
5. revamping of agriculture supporting infrastructure
In Gujarat over the last decade , market oriented reforms adopted by the state government has helped in delivering this impressive growth. The extension services support programme called Krishi mahotsav programme launched by the state Government provided health cards and Kissan credit cards to the farmers. The programme also helped farmers in making agri ventures more profitable and suggesting alternatives for improving crop productivity. Water conservation and management programme called Jalkranti was adopted aggressively in the state and this model could be adopted in states like Kerala to ensure adequate water resources for agricultural activity. It has to noted that a state like Kerala has only witnessed a0 .7 % growth in the Agri Sector from 2001 to 2009 contributing just 12.4 % of the state GDP.
Binu Sankar
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