Cash Crop Exports and Economic Growth in India: A Regression Based Analysis of Cotton, Jute, and Spices

Abstract

This study examined how the cotton, jute, and spice exports have impacted the economic development of India during the years 1991 to 2022. The research intends was descriptive research design. Further, the secondary data were collected via the RBI Handbook of statistics and the World Bank database. To find out the relationship that exist between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and exports of cotton, jute, and spices, multiple regression analysis was employed. Descriptive statistics indicated that variation in GDP and cash crop exports was quite significant, spices had the highest average export value and cotton and spices had high year to year volatility. The correlation outcome indicates that all the three cash crops are positively correlated with GDP, though the correlation between spices and the other two cash crops appears to be the best. In considering the regression analysis, exports of cotton, jute and spices combined were found to explain approximately 96.5 percent of the variation in the GDP. Nevertheless, of the latter, spice exports are the only ones that exert a significant and statistically important effect on economic development. This indicates that the high value crops, particularly the spices have a significant role in the Indian economy. Meanwhile, the findings also point out that the fluctuations in exports should be addressed and the competitiveness in the international market improved.