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Agriculture in India I.P. Abrol Centre for Advancement of Sustainable Agriculture Summary India’s record of progress in agriculture over the past four decades has been quite impressive. The agriculture sector has been successful in keeping pace with rising demand for food. The contribution of increased land area under agricultural production has declined over time and increases in production in the past two decades have been almost entirely due to increased productivity. Contribution of agricultural growth to overall progress has been widespread. Increased productivity has helped to feed the poor, enhanced farm income and provided opportunities for both direct and indirect employment. The success of India’s agriculture is attributed to a series of steps that led to availability of farm technologies which brought about dramatic increases in productivity in 70s and 80s often described as the Green Revolution era. The major sources of agricultural growth during this period were the spread of modern crop varieties, intensification of input use and investments leading to expansion in the irrigated area. In areas where ‘Green Revolution’ technologies had major impact, growth has now slowed. New technologies are needed to push out yield frontiers, utilize inputs more efficiently and diversify to more sustainable and higher value cropping patterns. At the same time there is urgency to better exploit potential of rainfed and other less endowed areas if we are to meet targets of agricultural growth and poverty alleviation. Given the wide range of agroecological setting and producers, Indian agriculture is faced with a great diversity of needs, opportunities and prospects. Future growth needs to be more rapid, more widely distributed and better targeted. These challenges have profound implications for the way farmers’ problems are conceived, researched and transferred to the farmers. On the one hand agricultural research will increasingly be required