Economic Reforms and Agricultural Development in North-East India/edited by Keya Sengupta and Niranjan Roy. New Delhi, Mittal, 2003, xviii, 220 p., tables, ISBN 81-7099-919-7.

Contents: Introduction. I. General issues related to agricultural reforms in North-East India: 1. Economic reforms and agricultural development in North-East India—some issues/A.K. Agarwal. 2. The main issues in agricultural development of North-East India/P.R. Bhattacharjee. 3. Role of food self – sufficiency during economic reforms—with special reference to Assam/Prabin Baishya. 4. Some issues on fertilizer consumption of North-East India/Dibyojyoti Bhattacharjee. 5. Impact of economic reform on agricultural development in North-East India—with special reference to Assam/Pranay Jyoti Goswami. 6. Economic reforms and agriculture—North-East revisited/Alok Sen. 7. Imperialism and agricultural reforms in India—an exploration/Mahmood A. Ansari. 8. Food security in liberalised economy—a review/Hiranmoy Roy and Ashim Kumar Das. II. Case study of agricultural reforms in North-East India: 9. Rice production in Tripura (1955-2000)/Amitabha Singha. 10. Agricultural development of north-eastern region in the post-reform period—a case study of Cachar district of South Assam/Tanmoy Som. 11. Status of the use of HYVs of rice by farmers in the Barak Valley region of Assam/Niranjan Roy. 12. Agro-economic prospects in North Cachar hills—a study in the context of economic reforms/Tanmoy Bhattacharjee. 13. Factors determining agricultural modernity—a study in Karimganj district of Assam/Jaynal Uddin Ahmed. III. Policy implications for agricultural reforms in North-East India: 14. Relative levels of agricultural development in the north-eastern states—current status and the imperatives under economic reforms/Kanak Kanti Bagchi. 15. Problems of agricultural financing by commercial banks in Cachar district of Assam—an overview/Nikhil Bhusan Dey and Sudipa Rakshit. 16. Off season income generation for agricultural workers through innovations in the housing finance industry, during the reform period in the north-eastern region/Amrit Lal Ghosh. Index.

"Economic reforms in India, with its urban bias and overemphasis on the industrial sector have pushed agriculture totally to the background. The existence of a dynamic agricultural sector is crucial not only for industrialisation of an economy, but for the overall growth and development. In a less developed country like India it is the agricultural sector which plays a dominant role in gearing the country into the desired channels of growth. The strength of the industrial sector of the economy depends, inter alia, on the strength of the agricultural sector. Any kind of negligence towards the agricultural sector will retard the growth of the industrial sector.

"The relevance of different issues relating to agricultural development during economic reforms becomes highly significant in the context of development of the agriculturally dominated and industrially backward north-eastern region of India. This book attempts to trace out such relevance of different issues for north-eastern region. The research articles contributed by established scholars present a fairly comprehensive account of the agricultural economy of the north-eastern region, analyse the strength and weakness of the agricultural sector in the perspective of economic reforms initiated in 1991 and work out key policy measures for accelerating agricultural growth.

"The book should be of immense use to students, teachers, professionals and policy makers interested in the agricultural economy of the north-eastern region in particular and India is general."

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