Agricultural productivity
Also called: Farm productivity · Topic: Land Reforms, the Green Revolution and Farm Subsidies · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Indian Economy on the Eve of Independence"; Class 11, Ch 2 "Indian Economy 1950-1990"; Class 11, Ch 5 "Rural Development"
Meaning
Agricultural productivity is the output of farming per unit of land or per unit of labour, for example tonnes per hectare or output per worker. It shows how efficiently land and labour are used, not just how much is produced. Around 1950 it was very low in India. The reasons were old technology, missing infrastructure and dependence on the monsoon, since very few farmers had irrigation. Raising it was the "growth" goal of the Green Revolution.
Example
In the first half of the 20th century, India's total farm output grew by less than 2% a year. Most of that came from bringing more land under the plough, while output per hectare stayed low. After HYV seeds arrived in the mid-1960s, yields rose sharply. Wheat output roughly doubled within about a decade of 1965.
Don't confuse with
- Total agricultural output: output can rise just because more land is farmed, while productivity stays flat. That is exactly what happened under colonial rule.