The Private Sector and India’s Agricultural Transformation

Abstract

There is often ambivalence about the private sector in agriculture. But successful agricultural growth and transformations are inconceivable without a dynamic private sector serving and driving agriculture, farming, and agri-food value chains. The private sector plays decisive roles in India’s agricultural transformation today, fostering productivity improvements and creating jobs and value in supply chains “from farm to fork.” This is a relatively new phenomenon, made possible by the economic reforms of the early 1990s and policy changes since then. There remains much to do. Government is challenged to offer the required enabling, regulatory, and institutional support.