Economy-Wide Production Requirements for India’s Food Security Programme

The performance of food grain sector in an economy is crucially dependent on other sectors of the economy. Therefore, the task of meeting the target for food grain production in the Twelfth Five Year Plan should be addressed by considering an economy-wide consistent production framework which includes both agricultural and non-agricultural production. A Mixed Input-Output Model is used to identify the Vital, Essential and Desirable sectors for increasing food grain production in the economy. Results indicate that the feasibility of the Food Security Programme depends on the availability of capacity augmenting resources including foreign exchange to increase food production.