Media365
6 min readOct 12, 2026 07:08 AM IST
First published on: Oct 12, 2026 at 06:20 AM IST
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has completed 25 years in public service: 13 as Gujarat’s chief minister and 12 as India’s Prime Minister. It is time to recall his major achievements and the challenges the nation faces over the next 10 years or so. Given my limitations as an agricultural economist, I will restrict my piece to agriculture’s performance in Gujarat and at the all-India level. I will also spell out what PM Modi still needs to do in agriculture to put it on a high and sustainable growth path that can significantly augment farmers’ incomes.
Let me start briefly with his term as Gujarat CM from 2001-02 to 2013-14. Gujarat agriculture experienced a miracle, registering growth of more than 9 per cent per annum. This was almost unheard of even in the heyday of the Green Revolution in Punjab. This achievement owed much to his strong emphasis on augmenting water supply for irrigation through check dams, as well as securing a good share of Narmada River waters. He also separated feeder lines for irrigation and rural households to ensure that power reached farmers on time for irrigation. Roads were given equally high priority, connecting farmers to markets. Extension work through Krishi Mahotsav brought together government functionaries and the private sector to reach farmers in every village and showcase the latest technologies. Bt cotton, approved by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2002, achieved wonders in Gujarat and created rural prosperity. These achievements also helped him become CM for four terms, until he became Prime Minister in 2014.
The year he took over as Prime Minister, India was hit by droughts in 2014 and 2015. Back-to-back droughts had occurred only three times in a century. His experience in Gujarat came in handy, and Modi accorded high priority to water (irrigation) along with crop insurance (PM Fasal Bima Yojana). As a result, almost 60 per cent of India’s gross cropped area is irrigated today. This has given India much-needed food security in basic staples. India has emerged as the largest producer and exporter of rice, and even after providing free food (rice or wheat, 5 kg per person per month) under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, we have buffer stocks that are more than four times the norm for rice and almost three times that for wheat.
India is also a net exporter of agricultural products. In 2025-26, India exported roughly $53 billion worth of agricultural products, with rice and marine products leading the way, and imported agricultural goods worth $40 billion, primarily edible oils and pulses.
Overall, the average annual growth of agricultural GDP under the Modi government, from 2014-15 to 2025-26, has been 4 per cent. This is not as high as the growth he achieved as Gujarat CM, but it is still good enough, especially when population growth is below 1 per cent. This is what has underpinned India’s food security.
But as we look towards the near future, and even towards his dream of Viksit Bharat by 2047, we see several challenges on the agricultural front. Let me list just two that deserve his urgent attention.
First, our production basket is characterised by a major mismatch between demand and supply. We have too much rice and wheat and too few pulses and oilseeds. We have so much rice that we now plan to use almost 7 million tonnes of it for ethanol. This is perverse as the net energy balance is negative, as is the economics. Atmanirbharta (self-sufficiency) in pulses and oilseeds cannot be achieved unless the incentive package for these crops matches that for rice and wheat. Our research at ICRIER shows that paddy cultivation in the Punjab-Haryana belt is lucrative because of large input subsidies on power, fertilisers and canal irrigation, amounting to almost Rs 40,000 per hectare. If we want farmers to shift from paddy to pulses, which we should do to relieve pressure on groundwater and protect the environment, we should reward pulses and oilseeds growers to the tune of about Rs 35,000 per hectare. This would not impose an additional burden on the exchequer, as it would result in savings on input subsidies by the states (power and canal irrigation) and the Centre (fertiliser subsidy). Can PM Modi announce a special programme along these lines, on a 50:50 basis, at least in Haryana, where the water table has been receding by 1.7 feet each year? That would encourage Punjab to follow suit.
Second, PM Modi’s dream of doubling farmers’ real incomes has remained unfulfilled. The Ashok Dalwai Committee had pointed out that achieving this goal would require agricultural GDP to grow at 10.4 per cent. We know that real growth has been around 4 per cent — not bad, but it can surely be better. The usual way to augment farmers’ incomes has been to diversify away from basic cereals towards high-value agriculture, be it fisheries, poultry, milk, fruits or vegetables. These are perishable commodities that require efficient value chains and links to high-income consumers in metros and abroad. But there is one strategy that can augment farmers’ incomes manyfold in a short period of time. And that is agri-photovoltaics, in which a farmer is an annadata as well as an urjadata. The land serves a dual purpose: Producing energy through solar panels installed at a height of about 10 to 11 feet, with adequate spacing to allow photosynthesis in the crops grown below. ICRIER has set up a pilot project in Rajasthan, which has increased a farmer’s income eight to 10 times. If PM Modi can tweak the PM-KUSUM scheme along the lines of the PM-Surya Ghar scheme, provide the same subsidy, and ensure a feed-in tariff at even half the cost of supplying power to rural areas under the traditional setup, he can usher in a new revolution, perhaps called ‘Surya Khet Kranti’, along the lines of ‘Operation Flood’ in milk.
The writer is distinguished professor at ICRIER. Views are personal
