The Export Pattern of Commercial Crops and Related Products of India: A Comparative Study

Abstract

India has completed two and a half decades of economic reforms. There are studies related to the impact of reforms on India’s export. Most of the studies have analyzed India’s foreign trade as a whole and in terms of value in specific. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the impact of reforms on India’s commercial crops and related products in India, in terms of quantity and value. The impact has been measured through decadal value, Compound Growth Rate (CGR), Instability Index (II) and Dummy Semi-Logarithmic Regression Estimation. It has been observed that reforms accelerated the export performance of all commercial crops during the reform period comparable to the pre-reform and overall study periods. During the reform period, some of the commercial crops viz. Natural rubber (12.50), silk (8.76), jute (10.84) and tobacco unmanufactured (6.50) have moved to positive growth rate from a negative growth rate during the pre-reform period and three products were moved from low CGR to high CGR viz. Cotton lint (20.92), rubber natural dry (38.40) and textile fibers (20.32) during the reform period. The Instability Index for all the commercial crops has decreased during the reform period, compared to the pre-reform period, except rubber natural dry (3.89) but compared to the overall period the Instability Index has registered a high value during the reform period. The jute and silk have moved to a low Instability Index group during the reform period from the medium Instability Index during the pre-reform period. The rubber natural has moved to a medium Instability Index during the reform period from a low Instability Index group during the pre-reform period. The estimation of the semi-log regression model has confirmed that there has been a positive significant change in the export of commercial crop items during the reform period.