INNOVATIONS IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE: IEG-IFPRI CONFERENCE
Wheat Field in Nawad, Bihar. Source: (flickr) Vartika Singh
Cross posted from the conference web page
India’s mood as a nation has been upbeat this past year with talk about pro-poor economic growth and the “Look East” policy in agriculture. This change in outlook comes not only with the entrance of a new government, but also with recognition that two decades of policy reforms and experiments—from liberalizing input markets to guaranteeing employment for the rural poor—have influenced rural livelihoods and agricultural sector growth potential in many ways, both intended and unintended. Decision makers in government, business, and civil society see this, and many are looking for fresh analysis on productivity growth trends, returns to farming, and social and economic welfare in rural India.
With that in mind, The Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) convened an international conference on “Innovation in Indian Agriculture: Ways Forward” on December 4-5 at the India International Centre here in New Delhi. The conference brought some creative minds together to explore innovative solutions to accelerate development in India’s agricultural sector through productivity growth, higher returns to farming, acceleration of poverty reduction, and the improvement of social and economic welfare in rural India.
Participants and speakers were drawn from a rich mix of backgrounds: senior officers and advisors from policymaking circles, analysts from the policy research community, representatives of farmer and civil society organizations, and executives and entrepreneurs from crop science and agribusiness concerns. As an international convening, the event sat leaders from India on the same dais as foreign scholars with keen interests in the state of Indian agriculture and its place in the world.
