Agriculture in Madhya Pradesh (MP) grew at 9.7 per cent per annum during the decade long period between 2005-06 and 2014-15. The last five years have been even more spectacular when agricultural growth rate stood at 14.2 per cent per annum.

Today, the Business Standard reported that farmers in MP have seen their cumulative income rise by 32 per cent in the past one year mainly due to diversification of farm activities to high value crops from cereals, and better road infrastructure.

This drastic change in one sector - agriculture - is propelling the entire economy of the state so much so that from the per capita net state domestic product of Rs 15,400 in 2004-05, MP finally breached the Rs 50,000 mark in 2014-15 at current prices, registering a three-and-a-half times higher growth on the key economic metric.

Given this tremendous record, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was asked to give a presentation during the governing council meet of NITI Aayog which was held recently. He presented a road map to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022.

In his presentation, Chouhan mentioned five areas where the governments need to focus on: decreasing the cost of cultivation; increasing productivity, shift in farm activities towards high value crops; better prices for farm produce; and risk mitigation through a comprehensive system of insurance and timely compensation.

An excellent paper [PDF], authored by India's preeminent agriculture scientist Ashok Gulati and his team came in handy for us to understand the key drivers of agricultural growth in Madhya Pradesh and the lessons that it holds for other major states of India with somewhat similar characteristics.

Diversification

Diversification from cereals and pulses towards high value crops, livestock and fisheries is one of the major factors behind the agricultural growth in MP. In the last five years alone, the state’s gross state domestic product (GSDP) in animal husbandry has grown from Rs 8,976 crore to Rs 33,751 crore and in fisheries from Rs 650 crore to 1,805 crore.



Apart from this, milk production recorded an increase from 6.4 million tonnes in 2006-07 to 10.8 million tonnes in 2014-15. Vegetable production increased from 3.6 million tonnes in 2010-11 to 14.2 million tonnes in 2013-14, taking the state from thirteenth to fourth place in vegetable production. Meat production tripled from 20,000 tonnes to 60,000 tonnes.

The following charts from the ICRIER paper illustrate the success of MP in diversifying farm produce.

Fruits and Vegetables