Decomposition Analysis of Agricultural Growth: A Review of Measurement Issues

In developing country like India, agriculture even at the present times overwhelmingly important as it provides livelihood for the more than half of total work force and supplies food to the whole nation. Hence, agriculture growth performance has become a serious issue of concern for both academicians and policy makers as it is subject to various fluctuations. Since independence its sources of growth have been changing. For effective policy measures one need to understand what contributes to the agricultural growth. Many scholars have attempted to understand the key sources of agricultural growth through decomposition analysis. In the literature, two schemes of analysis is widely discussed one id additive scheme of decomposition and the other is multiplicative scheme of decomposition of agricultural growth. In this paper, an attempt has been made to systematically review the studies on decomposition analysis and changes and development in the decomposition analysis since the independence. From the literature it is observed that the sources of agricultural growth varied according to study undertaken. Finally, this paper provides the advantages and drawbacks of the decomposition analysis and makes some suggestions on the comprehensive measure of decomposition analysis.