TRADE LIBERALIZATION AND INDIAN AGRICULTURE

India’s economic reforms and the Structural Adjustment Programme of 1991 brought to the centre stage of policy and analysis several important issues that the agricultural sector in India would face in a globalizing world. The setting up of the WTO and developments in the multilateral trading rules as per the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture added new dimensions to this. That any policy change at the global level would have significant implications for trade, which in turn could impact the performance of agriculture, became apparent in manifold ways.

Pertinently, how do trade liberalization, globalization measures, macro-economic and sector-specific policies affect relative prices, investment, exports, imports, and hence producers’ incentives for higher production and growth? What is the magnitude of response of agriculture to liberlization in these policies? To what extent is agriculture resilient to fluctuations in the global prices and other divergences? What measures can be initiated to neutralize the adverse effects of shocks that may arise in a free trade economy and maintain an incentive structure, output and exports? This study examines these issues and many more during the pre- and post-liberalization periods using empirical models.

The book will benefit researchers, students and policy makers interested in agriculture economics, international trade, development policy analysis and applied econometrics.

Seema Bathla is Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She obtained her M.Phil from Delhi School of Economics and Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Earlier, she has also worked in the Institute of Economic Growth and TERI. She has to her credit one book (co-authored) and several research articles in refereed national and international journals. She has undertaken several assignments for UNCTAD, WWF-India, JAICAF and IASRI. She is the recipient of the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for Outstanding Post-Graduate Agricultural Research by the ICAR in 2009 for her doctoral work.