Putting agriculture on the takeoff trajectory: Nurturing the seeds of growth in Bihar, India

Kishore, Avinash; Sharma, Bharat and Joshi, Pramod Kumar. 2014. Putting agriculture on the takeoff trajectory: Nurturing the seeds of growth in Bihar, India. New Delhi, India: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and International Water Management Institute (IWMI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150058

The Green Revolution bypassed the state in its first wave in the 1960s and 1970s. Subsequently, during a short interval in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the agricultural growth rate reached almost 3 percent per year, one of the highest in the country, though over a smaller base. Even this modest growth was short-lived, and stagnation has set in again. This report explores why. Although the overall agricultural scenario of Bihar reflects slow growth and even stagnation, some regions in the state (like the Sone command area in south Bihar) and some crops (like maize) and allied activities (like the dairy and the livestock sector) show reasonable growth and