How Stable Is Indian Irrigated Agriculture

B D Dhawan Instability of irrigated farming during the period 1970-71 to 1983-84 is here assessed and compared with the corresponding instability in rainfed farming. That irrigation lowers farm instability is found in nine out of eleven states. For alt the eleven states taken together, the coefficient of variation of detrended output is 5 A per cent for the irrigated segment as against 11.4 per cent for the unirrigated segment Quite expectedly, the stability gain in yield due to irrigation is much more than the corresponding stability gain in crop area. It is in the two high rainfall states of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh that irrigation fails to show any moderating influence on agricultural instability.