Growth & Productivity Of Food Processing Industries In All-India

Green revolution of 60s ultimately after four decades led the beneficiary states like Punjab witness slow growth in productivity of agriculture, depleting water table as well as increasing soil salinity and micro-nutrient deficiencies accompanied by rising costs of production. It led to the stagnating incomes and high indebtedness amongst the farmers. However, to circumvent this problem, policymakers are putting emphasis on shifting the direction of agriculture towards high value agricultural commodities such as fruits and vegetables, milk and milk products, meat, eggs, fish and processed food products from the stereotyped wheat and rice monoculture. The solution seems more viable too when seen in light of the consumers demand for better, safer and convenient food products for which they are even willing to pay a higher price. The present study is taken up to assess the growth and productivity of different food processing industries in India since 1980-81. The results indicate that the momentum gained by the food processing industries in terms of its share in overall manufacturing sector from 1990-91 to 2000-01 lost its steam in the next decade and picked up later from 2010-11 to 2015-16. Also, the growth of food processing industries remained less than what was realized in the pre-liberalization regime with total output and profitability experiencing a negative growth. Further, total factor productivity change experienced a decline owing to decrease in both the technical as well as scale efficiencies and labour divergence in the post-2000 period.