Growth, Performance and Instability of India's Agricultural Exports a Pre and Post Reform Analysis

Despite a declining sectoral importance in overall GDP, and share in total trade, India's agriculture continues to be a fundamental sector in our country. Though India's trade liberalization and structural adjustment programme began in 1991, the agriculture sector received direct policy attention little later. The present study is an attempt to take a closer look at the performance of India's agricultural exports and imports during pre and post reform periods and to assess the changing growth pattern of trade. Consequent upon, trade liberalization in Indian Agriculture, total agriculture imports accelerated while the exports decelerated. Despite higher values of exports and imports for agriculture, the significance in overall merchandise trade has eroded. A marked evidence of structural break in India's agriculture exports is noticeable after trade reforms in Indian agriculture. It has been observed that a relatively lower growth rate of total agriculture exports is associated with a lesser extent of instability in the post reform period