The table below traces how Indi­a's agri­cul­tural pol­icy has changed since 1950: what was dri­ving farm growth in each period, and the main pol­icy changes that went with it.

PeriodBroader Frame­workChanges in Agri­cul­tural Poli­cies
1950 - 1965Expan­sion of agri­cul­tural area was the main source of out­put growthAgrar­ian reforms (abo­li­tion of inter­me­di­ary land­lord­ship, impo­si­tion of land ceil­ing). Strength­en­ing of co-oper­a­tive credit insti­tu­tions. Essen­tial Com­modi­ties Act 1955.
1965-1980Increase in pro­duc­tiv­ity was the main source of growth (the “Green Rev­o­lu­tion”)Pro­mot­ing the adop­tion of tech­no­log­i­cal break­throughs in rice and wheat pro­duc­tion. Pol­icy sup­port for mar­ket­ing, research and credit. Intro­duc­tion and for­mal­i­sa­tion of lend­ing to pri­or­ity sec­tors, includ­ing agri­cul­ture. New insti­tu­tions, e.g. State Agri­cul­tural Uni­ver­si­ties, Food Cor­po­ra­tion of India, Agri­cul­tural Prices Com­mis­sion. Pro­grammes to increase pro­duc­tion and pro­cess­ing of milk (sup­port to breeds pro­duc­ing more milk, pro­ducer organ­i­sa­tions, and pro­cess­ing and trans­port equip­ment). Min­i­mum sup­port prices.
1980sWide­spread use of tech­nol­ogy in major crop areasSome deli­cens­ing and dereg­u­la­tion. Increase in sub­si­dies to agri­cul­ture.
1990sEco­nomic and trade lib­er­al­i­sa­tion in agri­cul­ture lags behind gen­eral eco­nomic reformsCau­tious relax­ation of trade pro­tec­tion in some prod­ucts, e.g. sugar, cot­ton, edi­ble oils, wheat, rice. Increases in input sub­si­dies. Tar­get­ing of ben­e­fi­cia­ries of pub­lic dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem of food grains.
2000sDemand-dri­ven shift towards pro­duc­ing more fruit, veg­eta­bles and live­stock prod­ucts. Increas­ing price gaps between inter­na­tional and domes­tic prices for pro­duc­ersAlter­nate tight­en­ing and loos­en­ing of mar­ket and trade reg­u­la­tions (includ­ing export restric­tions). Agri­cul­tural mar­ket­ing reg­u­la­tions influ­enc­ing pric­ing, procur­ing, stock­ing, and trad­ing of com­modi­ties. Large increases in input sub­si­dies, includ­ing credit. Sup­port to high pro­duc­tiv­ity seeds par­tic­u­larly cot­ton.
Since 2010Major par­tic­i­pant in world mar­kets for some com­modi­ties. Con­tin­ued price gaps between inter­na­tional and domes­tic prices tax­ing pro­duc­ers. Increas­ing direct pay­ments to pro­duc­ers. Increas­ing sup­port to con­sumers.More struc­tured inter­ac­tion between cen­tral and state level author­i­ties. Expan­sion of food sub­si­dies and 2013 National Food Secu­rity Act. Pilots to replace phys­i­cal dis­tri­b­u­tion of grains with cash trans­fers in selected states and Union Ter­ri­to­ries. Agri­cul­ture Export Pol­icy frame­work aimed at ensur­ing processed and organic prod­ucts are not sub­ject to export restric­tions. Dou­bling Farm­ers’ Income by 2022-23 action plan. State-level sup­port pack­ages for farm loan waivers. Direct income trans­fer pro­gramme PM-KISAN. Changes to domes­tic agri­cul­tural mar­ket­ing reg­u­la­tions ini­ti­ated in 2020 as part of the COVID-19 eco­nomic sup­port pack­age; with­drawal of these reforms at the end of 2021.