Growth of Agricultural Production and Productivity:

Post-independence period was marked by severe and recurrent shortages of foodgrains. Dependence on imports of foodgrains was on the rise. This continued and persisted for a fairly long period until the mid-1960s when a war with Pakistan highlighted the fragility of the country's food security system. Even though, there was significant increase in agricultural production including the production of foodgrains, the gap between the domestic demand and supply was persistent. 

During this phase increase in agricultural production was fairly high at 3.1 per cent per annum. This rate of increase appears to be phenomenal particularly in comparison to the dismal rate of growth of about 0.5 per cent per annum during the first half of the twentieth century. Even the rate of growth of production of foodgrains was pretty high touching almost 3 per cent per annum. However, but for some significant rise in the yield per hectare for rice crop, most of other increase in production was attributable to the increase in area under the crops. A growth rate of 4 per cent per annum in the production of wheat was largely contributed by growth in area under wheat. Similar was the case of non-foodgrain crops.