Abstract

It was presumed that the new economic reforms adopted in 1991 would benefit tradable agriculture and also by improving the terms of trade in its favour. But it was ironic that trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy framework had not been able to bring any significant growth in the agriculture sector. Although WTO brings new opportunities and challenges for the member countries through trade liberalisation in the agriculture sector, in the case of India, it had created more challenges for the farmers than opportunities. The present study aims to address how WTO agreements have adversely impacted Indian agriculture. The study endeavours to quantify the variables related to globalization. A composite index of agrarian crisis has been created to check the impact of different implications of WTO agreements on agrarian crisis. Results of regression analysis found that domestic to international prices ratio and total subsidies have a significant impact on Indian agriculture. No study has constructed an index of agrarian crisis and used it as the dependent variable in regression analysis which has been done in the present study.