Indian agriculture is seriously lagging behind other sectors. Agricultural incomes are increasing at a much slower pace than in other sectors. A marked dualism, symbolised by the phrase ‘India versus Bharat’, has already emerged between the agriculture and rural sector on the one hand and the rest of the economy – services and manufacturing on the other. This is unsustainable. All efforts need to be made to bridge this widening gap and accelerate the pace of output and productivity growth in agriculture. Clearly, India needs a second Green Revolution to achieve its planned growth targets.

In the above context, the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) was requested by the Ministry of External Affairs to organise a seminar which would address two core issues, namely, agriculture reform and prospects of agri-business investment under the aegis of the U S A–India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative. The initiative was launched as a fall-out of Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's visit to the U S A in 2005. The seminar was organised on 30 April, 2007. It was well-attended by agriculture experts, policy makers, international trade experts, NGOs, academicians and industry representatives. With the active support of NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), one of the sponsors of the seminar, ICRIER has put together the specially commissioned studies in this seminar volume edited by Dr Surabhi Mittal and Dr Arpita Mukherjee, Senior Fellows at ICRIER.

This book pulls together all the critical issues that the Indian agriculture sector is facing currently. A distinguishing feature of this volume is that it focusses on private-public partnership in agriculture for the benefit of the rural poor.