Growth in agricultural production along with low instability is highly desirable. The negative but significant growth rates were noticed in the area under wheat during Period I, The area, production and productivity of bajra, increased significantly during the same period. The growth rates in productivity of wheat and maize increased significantly during Period II, indicating the positive effect of liberalization. The growth rates in case of productivities of all the major cereals increased significantly with different magnitudes in the state during the same period, except kharif jowar, which recorded negative growth rate. During the overall period, growth rates of area under paddy, wheat, kharif jowar, rabi jowar, bajra, declined significantly, whereas maize increased significantly.
The magnitudes of the variability during Pre-liberalization period (Period-I) were medium (less than 30 per cent) for area, production and productivity of major cereals under study. The productivities of the most of crops improved during Period-II and overall period over Period-I. The area instability indices of major crops during Period I indicated that, rabi jowar stood first in low instability (9.05%) whereas maize exhibited high instability (45.40 %). During Period II, high instability was showed by area under maize i.e. 52.04 per cent and as usual paddy occupied first position in low instability i.e. 4.52 per cent.