Punjab continues its dominance in agriculture in India, but questions are being raised on its agri model, especially its inability to move from a monocrop culture focusing on water-intensive crops. Meanwhile, two states in the south, Telangana and Puducherry, are betting on innovation and farm-centric schemes to boost agriculture output and improve the lot of their farmers. This has also helped them move to the top of the rankings, having done admirably in many of the criteria such as contribution of agriculture to GDP, agriculture GSDP/ rural population and percentage of irrigated land.
