NEW AGRICULTURAL STRATEGIES (NAS)IN INDIA: A FEDERAL FARMING PEDAGOGY

Ms. K.Jayashree M.A., M.Phil is presently doing her Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. Padmini Swaminathan at MIDS Chennai. She is a recipient of ICSSR and Nehru Memorial fellowships alongside MIDS research grant. She has a couple of published works including a theme paper at the ICSSR VI Development Convention.

This dissertation renders a substantive summary of the agricultural development strategies in India. With Tamil Nadu as its empirical domain, the discussion proposes to review the strategic changes that took place in the food grains sector in the contexts of technological and economic programmes of the Indian government in 1960s and 1990s respectively. While 1960s marked the beginning of scientific farming practices, the regime of neo- liberal orthodoxy of 1990s, led to liberalization of agriculture. The impact of such upheavals (at central and state levels, plan-wise) on farm areas and yield rates is documented. Musing over the food security mission of the government, the study essentially focuses on the food grains production augmentation schemes in the state of Tamil Nadu not only as an impact study, but as a policy review on technocratic underpinnings of state strategies. The core quest of the elucidation is thus a critical auditing of government initiatives towards food security with a concomitant reflection upon the policy space of the peasants.