This is a lecture I delivered at Mysore University Academic Staff College. The lecture takes into account the entire experience on agricultural policy of mine.References are purposefully not given as the readers can gwt to me.

1. AGRICULTURAL POLICY IN INDIA:
A POLICY MATRIX IN A FEDERAL
SYSTEM
R S Deshpande
Rajeev Gandhi National Fellow, ICSSR
Institute for Social and
Economic Change, Bangalore

2. CONTOURS OF POLICY
 Agricultural as a State Subject
 State Specific Policies
 Sub-Sectoral Policies
 Agro-Climatic Regional Policies
(i) Agro-Climatic Region-Planning
Commission
(ii) Agro-Climatic Region-NARP

3. AGRICULTURAL POLICY AND FEDERALISM
 Agricultural Policy of most of the nations is
under stress of reforms & regional
responses
 Agricultural Policy in India has a strong
state dependence
 India never had a formal, comprehensive
Agricultural Policy since independence
 No consultation with lower level bodies or
farmers’ organisations for agricultural
schemes of the states.
 Intervention in agriculture by different
levels of government is suo moto

4. DIRECTIONS OF THE AGRICULTURAL
POLICY
 Was there any Agricultural Policy
 Riverine Policy Frame
 Bold Features of this frame
i. Development Infrastructure
ii. Area Specific Programmes
iii. Technological/Institutional
iv. Problem Specific Programmes
v. Trade Centred Growth

5. OVERVIEW OF AGRICULTURAL POLICY CONCERNS
First Phase Pre
Independen
ce up to
1947
Problems inherited from
Colonial Rule
Second
Phase
1947 to
1966
Food Security Community
Development
Third Phase 1967-1979 Tech-Institutional Changes
Fourth
Phase
1980-1990 Two distinct phases
i. Distribution fallouts of
technological change
ii. Environmental fallouts
Fifth Phase 1990-2001 Liberalisation and complying to
the WTO regime.
Sixth Phase 2001
onwards
Adjusting to the WTO norms
and making Indian agriculture
globally competitive

6. THEORY OF POLICY MAKING
Sartaz Aziz 1990 OECD
Parlberg Robert 1996 & 1997
Srinivasan T N 1972,1998,2000
Lasswell, 1956;Hill 1984; Hall
1993;
Jordan, 1994; Coleman et al 1997

7. HALL (1993) PUTS THREE ORDERS OF POLICY
CHANGES
i. Changes imply tampering with the current setting
of the policy instruments (e.g.. Changes that are
occurring in the domestic policy to meet the WTO
requirement )
ii. Replacing the policy initiative by the other with or
without any in-house evaluation (The Agriculture
Document 2000 or the policy changes that
occurred in Canada during 1988)
iii. A Complete departure in the policy goals following
theoretical or ideological framework involving the
state and political actors. (Like the shift towards
opening of international trade from earlier strictly
guarded trade policy)

8.  Harold Lasswell Lists six steps in
Policy formulation
I. Recognizing a policy Problem
II. Identifying the Nature of the Problem
III. Call for Alternatives
IV. Rank them all on the scale of welfare gain
and ease of operation
V. Make predictions about risk and
consequences
VI. Come to a decision combining qualitative
and quantitative investigation

9. GENERALIZED MODEL OF POLICY FORMULATION
National or State
Political Ideology
Federal /
Central
Polity
Provincial/
State Polity
Parliament
and Related
Institutions*
Provincial
Legislature
and Related
Institution*
Governing Structure
Advisory
Bodies
Interest
Groups
Feed Back
Mechanism
Policy Bodies
Provincial
and
Central
or
Federal

10. POLICY MAKING : AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
 European Union: CAP emerged as the package
of rules and regulations to eradicate food
shortage in Europe. With the union’s
enlargement the Union agreed to the latest
round of reforms in June 2003
 French Agricultural Policy: Implementation of
new management tools and instruments like
the Farm Territorial Contract .
 Canadian Agriculture: A better-organized
framework developing policy. Five elements of
the Policy framework are i. Business risk
management, ii.Food safety and food quality,
iii. Science and Innovation, iv. Environment
and v. Renewal

11. UNITED STATES
 United States Farm Policy: A series of policy
steps coinciding with the problems
confronted by the country. The four
important phases are
i) 1785-1890: Concern was land distribution
ii) 1830-1914: Focus was productivity improvement
iii) Between 1870 and 1933: Simultaneously some
regulations on markets and improvement in
infrastructure
iv) Since 1924: Direct government interventions to
provide farm income support
v) Trade as an Engine of control (1924-1980)and
Protective Agri Sector 1980-2001.

12. INDIA’S AGRICULTURAL POLICY: OVERVIEW
 Gregory 1943; Thakurdas Committee 1947
 Maitra 1950; Mehta 1957; Venkatappaiah
1966; L K Jha 1964
 Sharad Joshi, 1990; Hign Power Committee
1990; Nadkarni 1993;
 Govt of Karnataka 1995;
 Rao V M & Jeromi 2000 RBI
 Strategic Plan 1998
 Govt of India (Devegowda)1999
 Govt of India 2000

13. AGRICULTURAL POLICY STATEMENT-
JULY-2000
Sustainable Agriculture
Food and Nutrition Security
Generation and Transfer of
Technology
Input Management
Incentives for Agriculture
Investments in Agriculture
Institutional Structure
Risk Management
Managing Reforms

14. REPORT OF TASK FORCE ON AGRICULTURE:
2002
Support to and Protection of Indian
Agriculture
Actualizing Market Access
Opportunities
Quality Issues and SPS Measures
Trade Policy Reforms
Preparedness and Federal Character

15. CROSS CLASSIFICATION OF SELECTED
STATES
Naturally Well
Endowed
Regions
Naturally
Constrained
Regions
Regions with
Significant
Impact
Punjab; Har;
West UP; TN;
W Mah.; S WB;
MPradesh
Gujarat; N Raj;
Regions that
remained
bypassed
Assam; Bihar;
N WB; Chhat;
N Kar;
APRayal; Mar-
Vid Mah;

16. THE BROAD GROUPS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ANALYSIS
Groups Names of States
Towards High
Commercialisation
Punjab,Haryana and
Himachal Pradesh
Diversifying for Trade Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka
and Tamil Nadu
Infrastructure for
Take-off in Trade
Maharashtra and Madhya
Pradesh
Encashing on Rainfed
Crops
Gujarat and Rajasthan
Need for
Diversification
Assam and West Bengal
Evading Low
Productivity Trap
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh

17. DISTILLED POLICY
FRAMEWORK AND WHAT IT
INVOLVES
PRODUCTION, STATE
INTERVENTIONS,FACTOR MARKETS, INSTITUTIONS;
MARKETING,EXTENSION,
R & D,PRICE POLICY
ISSUES

18. CALCULUS OF POLICY-MAKING: SEVEN IMPORTANT
DIMENSIONS
 Stock of resources and their historic
utilisation in the context of growth
 Historical path of growth and development
in the region
 To locate policy domain of acceptance
 The information from society for
understanding their needs and calculations
for future development.
 Understanding of the constraints
 The process of policy making from a few
broad sub-sectors of the economy
 Feedback mechanism

19. FIRST PHASE OF POLICY
REFORMS
 Structural Adjustments
 Trade Policy, Industrial Policy
 Relaxation in licensing
 Targeting of PDS & Procurement
 Credit Policy – Financial Sector

20. • Rainfed Regions and Bypassed Groups
and Crops
• Product Factor Market Imperfections
• Value Additions and Market Margin
Reduction
• Safety Net Programmes and
Specially Devised Programmes for
Rainfed Agriculture
• Proactive Entry into the new phase
of growth
• Issue of Subsidies in Agriculture
MAJOR PROBLEMS

21. POLICY PLATFORM
 Withdrawal of the State (intervention not
protection) from the factor as well as
Product market intervention and allowing
agricultural sector to perform.
 Identifying the commodities with
competitive advantage in international
trade and creating institutional incentive
structures for such commodities for
boosting up the growth in trade.
 Creating an institutional setup to help
agricultural sector in order to negotiate
with the new policy regimes.

22. CONTD….
 Disseminating information about the
forthcoming changes in the sector to
the farmers in the language
understandable to them.
 To identify and enlist the natural
resource degradation process and
create forces with proper incentives to
internalize the negative externalities.
 Address Land Market,Labour – Factor
Market imperfections With First
Priority
 A proactive price policy, Procurement
as a Commercial Operation

23. ISSUES CONFRONTING THE
PRODUCTION SECTOR
 Productivity is fast reaching the achievable
optima during the decade.
 Changes in Crop Composition are quite visible
and the policy also favours diversification
 New technological Breakthrough is needed
 Relative price trends, distorting the quality
of growth
 Terms of Trade
 Trade Centered Growth
 Value Addition to the Product

24. ISSUES CONFRONTING THE FACTOR
MARKETS
 Land Use Pattern: Declining Land
Productivity, and Dependence on
External Nutrients
 Land Reforms and the Differential
Impact and New Phase
 Contributions to Total Factor
Productivity
 Sectoral Imbalances due to uneven
increases in Cost and Returns
 Imperfections in the Input Markets

25. CONTD…
 Increasing Trends in Inefficient Use of
lands
 Marginalisation of the Size of Holding
 Trends in Capital Formation
 Imbalances in Fertiliser Use
 Inefficiency in Water Use
 Increasing Cost of Cultivation
 Labour Shortages and Wage Trends

26. TRADE REFORMS
Stepping up of trade in selected
agricultural commodities
Encouraging trade in commodities
with comparative advantages for the
country
New trade avenues for non-
traditional agricultural
exports/regions
Info on Quality and SPS
requirements for different
commodities
International market information and
market margins

27. BASIC COMPONENTS OF THE
NEW POLICY
 Taking Advantage of Liberalised Forces
 Competitiveness as the Key Word
 Keeping Safety Nets and Poverty in
Sight
 Capital and Skill Intensity for the By-
Passed Regions and Classes
 Strengthening the Trade Sector

28. BASIC COMPONENTS OF THE
NEW POLICY-II
 Capital Formation in Agriculture
 Development of Infrastructure and
Market friendliness of Agriculture
 Input Supply Sector
 Reviewing Role of State Intervention
 People’s Participation not of NGO
Quality
 Need for a National Dialogue

29. HIGH DENSITY CAPITAL INTENSIVE
SECTOR
 Irrigated Agriculture
(i) Efficiency of Irrigation
(ii) Returns to Irrigation
(iii) Negative Externalities
(iv) People’s Control WUAs
 Capital Intensive Agriculture
(i) Horticulture
(ii) Floriculture