Description

India is the seventh largest and second most populous country in the world. Agriculture sector has an important role in the economic development of India as a large size of its population lives in rural areas. It is a major source of livelihood for millions of people in India. Approximately 58.4 percent of the people depend on agriculture either directly or indirectly. Agriculture growth rate is at 1.6 percent total food grain production at232.07 million ton in 2010-11. Agriculture sector contributed 15.7 (in 2008-09) to India's GDP and 10.59 India's exports in 2009-10. Economic liberalization policies as well as the globalization process are also exerting strong pressures on the area allocation decision of farmers, essentially through their impact on the relative prices of inputs and outputs. Although the factors that influence the area allocation decision of farmers are all important, they obviously differ in terms of the relative importance both across farm groups and resource regions. While factor such as food and fodder self-sufficiency, farm size, and investment constraints are important in influencing the area allocation pattern.