AN ANALYSIS OF GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF FOOD GRAINS IN TAMIL NADU, INDIA

Abstract

Foodgrains are the very important agricultural commodities which fulfill the dietary and nutritional requirements of human beings. Throughout the pages of history, it can be observed that a very large proportion of humanity has lost life due to hunger and starvation. Without enough food, India’s hope for improving human welfare, achieving social justice and securing democracy will become almost impossible of attainment. The growth rate of agricultural production is generally judged by the performance of food grains and non-food grains production.Increased agricultural production, whether food crops or non-food crops, results in enhanced net income of the farmers given remunerative prices and input costs. When the net income of the farmers increases, markets begin to expand. Available data indicate that out of the total cropped area of 59,42,134 hectares, the area under food grains is 34,95,997 hectares covering more than 58.83 percent of the total cropped area in Tamil Nadu during 2018-19. Due to the importance of food grains in the life of the masses, the performance of foodgrains in Tamil Nadu over a long period of time has been attempted with the following objectives i) to estimate the average annual growth rate of area, production and productivity of cereals, pulses and food grains in Tamil Nadu ii) to analyze the performance of food grains in Tamil Nadu, and iii) to estimate and examine the performance of food grainsduring the three sub periods.