AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA AND ITS EXPORTS AND POTENTIAL OF BIHAR

Agriculture has been a way of life and continues to be the single most important livelihood of the masses. Agricultural policy focus in India across decades has been on self-sufficiency and self-reliance in foodgrains production. Considerable progress has been made on this front. Foodgrains production rose from 52 million tonnes in 1951-52 to 244.78 million tonnes in 2010-11. Indian agriculture has greatly contributed to foreign trade even in its traditional form Indian Agricultural products have been facing stiff competition from Asian countries for quite some times. Due to globalization and liberalisede regime, this competition is likely to increase further and new initiatives in agriculture development shall have to meet the emerging challenges. The performance of agriculture after integration with the world markets is linked to the success of exports. In its bid to increase overall exports, the government of India has decided to achieve this objective by giving a push to production and export of agricultural commodities. Agriculture has been a source of foreign exchange for India in the past. Most of the export earnings of agriculture came from the conventional items such as tea, cashew and spices.