Geo-Eye

Abstract

Karnataka has been a marginally deficit state in regard to food grains production. Though the situation improved from 1970s thanks to Green Revolution, there was no stability in the yield. The area under HYVs has stagnated around 32 lakh hectares. In 1990s, the food grains production started showing an upward trend going above 78 to 80 lakh tonnes. As a matter of fact, the Government of Karnataka has claimed that it has produced more than 90 lakh tonnes of food grains during 1996-97. This is the maximum food grains that the Karnataka agriculture can produce, taking into account the limited area under irrigation devoted for growing food grains, shift in the cropping pattern from food grains to commercial crops and inadequate use of chemical fertilizes. Surprisingly, the dry land agriculture contributes substantially to the food grains production of Karnataka. Therefore, the performance of Karnataka dryland agriculture determines the level of food grains production in the State. If the Karnataka agriculture produced around 95 lakh tonnes, then with 7 to 10 lakh tonnes of food grains allocated under PDS, it should be able to meet the food grains demand of the people. What is interesting to note is that while all india food grains, production was stable during the 1990s, Karnataka’s food grains production faced instability. Until this is overcome, it will be futile to think of self sufficiency in food grains. In an open economy, it is also a wasteful strategy of development.

Keywords: Productivity, miscellaneous, reorganization, dominant