When Planning began in independent
India
the need for broad basedresearch in agricultural was recognised and in 1954 the scheme of Regional AgroEconomic Research Centres (AERCs) was launched by the Union Government. Todaythere are 15 such centres functioning in various states of the country. Theyhave completed over 2000 research studies and the set of said two volumes oneon Macro with 31 studies and the other on micro 74 issues, are the firstattempt to bring the results of the studies conducted during 2000-2004 infocus. The issues studied are: The impact of various policy and non policyvariables on the growth of crop
production, the lowering of public sectorcapital formation and the high cost of production in
India when compared to othercountries. It underscores how only a little assistance is given to the Indianfarmers. The study estimates that by 2020
Indiawould no more be self sufficient and at the WTO level there is a need to insiston reduction in overall domestic support to
agriculture and have specialsafeguard measures in countries like
India. Another study is on impactof agricultural trade liberalisation and related reforms on domestic foodsecurity. Major changes were the removal of quantitative restrictions, reducedtariffs, removal of canalisation of imports and entry of private trade inagricultural exports and imports. There is an entire section on slow-growthcrops that include oilseeds and pulses. On the domestic front, there has beendis-protection by raising Minimum Support Price close to global market levelcausing price rise. While studies like these have into the first volume, thesecond volume contains studies on region-specific crops, input markets, dry-landagriculture, horticulture, floriculture, dairy and livestock. The two scholarlyvolumes also bring out the potential of production in
India and its markets.