Profile and performance of some Farm Input Industries

Abstract

Modernisation of agriculture requires different farm inputs industries like seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, implements and machinery, feed for livestocks and electricity. This is because new technologies in agriculture are invariably embodied in these inputs. This exploratory study aims to discuss (a) profile and financial performance of some units/companies in selected farm input industries in early 1990s and (b) pre and post reform growth performance of some farm input industries at the aggregate level. To study the first objective, data were collected from annual reports of the companies and some directories on industries available in the library. For the second objective, data sources are various issues of Annual Survey of Industries published by CSO, GOI and 1996-97 Economic Survey of GOI. Performance of major farm input industries under study reveals a paradoxical set of findings. At the firm level financial performance shows it to be quite good and especially for small and medium size companies particularly fertilisers, pesticides and farm implements and machinery. But the industry level growth performance especially in post reform period (upto 1995) it is not so. New economic policies seem to have improved the financial performance to some extent but did not get translated at aggregate or industry level. Unless economic policy addresses the crucial question of composition of economic growth the stray better performing smaller farm input firms may not wield industry level performance in the directions desirable to the economy.