Impact of Government Initiatives on Total Factor Productivity of Pigeon Pea Cultivation in India

Background: India is the largest producer as well as consumer of pulses in the world due to higher relance of their people on vegetarian sources of proteins, however, we have been dependent on import of pulses for meeting our demand for pulses over several decades. As a strategy to be self-reliant in pulses production two important initiatives were taken by the government of India viz. implementation of Accelerated Pulses Production Program (A3P) and inclusion of pulses in the National Food Security Mission (NFSM-Pulses) during 2010-11. Pigeon pea has tremendous medicinal and pharmacological properties and uses in addition to the good quality source of proteins. Significant improvement observed in production and productivity of pigeon pea after the A3P and NFSM-Pulses was questioned for its Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth. Methods: This study was designed to assess impact of A3P and NFSM-Pulses on TFP of Pigeon pea in major Indian producing states. TFP was estimated with the help of Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) using Data Envelopment Analysis Program (DEAP) version-2.1 in five states of India viz., Gujarat, Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra and UP which contribute more than three-fourth pigeon pea production in India. Result: TFP change in period-II (after A3P and NFSM-Pulses) was invariably higher than the TFP change in period-I (before the initiatives) in all the studied states. It indicates that these government initiatives contributed to the enhancement of production and productivity of pigeon pea with the support of better technology adoption rather than just led by higher use of inputs.