Market access and aggregate crop productivity in India

Agriculture remains very important for India. Facing the problem of steadily increasing population, India confronts the permanent challenge of food security. Increasing crop productivity (in monetary terms) through better market access is one of the ways to reach this goal. Applying panel econometric analysis, this book investigates the implications and the influence of market access determinants (road and market densities) on the aggregate crop productivity. The results of the analyses at district, state, and regional level are presented. It was found that the aggregate crop productivity might be largely improved merely through prompting the states (districts, farmers) to allocate their resources in a more efficient way, without even using more inputs. It is shown, however, that increased use of inputs would be adding to that positive effect considerably. Therefore, this book renders useful quantitative insights into what could be improved, where the state and national governments could step in financially to get a desired feedback from increasingly scarce public investments.