Till a few years ago, Madhya Pradesh was counted in the ailing states along with Bihar, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. They were given the status of sick state because the number of people living below the poverty line was very high in these states due to a very low GDP growth rate and average per capita income. Due to this, the rate of illiteracy was high in these states, there was a complete lack of facilities including medical facilities in the villages and the population growth rate was also comparatively high.
But with the constant efforts and better policies, Madhya Pradesh has now come out of the nomenclature of the sick. The economy of Madhya Pradesh is based on agriculture. About two-thirds of the state's population lives in villages and about 54 percent of the population is dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Madhya Pradesh has achieved an average growth rate of 9.7 percent in the agriculture sector during the years 2005-06 to 2014-15. During the next five years, its average growth rate in agriculture has been 14.2 percent annually, which is the highest in the country. Today, the state tops the country in the production of pulses like gram, oilseeds, pigeon pea, gram, urad, soybean, garlic, tomatoes, and oranges.
Similarly, in the production of wheat, onion, green peas, guava, and maize, this state ranks second in the country, third in the production of coriander, red chilies, mustard, and milk. It is second only to Uttar Pradesh in terms of food production. Madhya Pradesh has, in the meantime, provided a variety of facilities to farmers in rural areas. First of all, irrigation facilities have been made available in the villages at a large level. In the year 2000-01, the average irrigation facilities in the state was 24 percent, which was very less than the national average of 41.2 percent.
But due to fast work in this direction, the average of irrigation facilities increased to 42.8 percent in 2014-15, which came very close to the national average of 47.8 percent. Today most villages in the state have electricity available for about 24 hours. Also, all the villages of the state have been connected to the roads available 24 hours in all seasons. Madhya Pradesh is second in wheat production, so it is because of a special bonus provided by the state government for the purchase of wheat to farmers. The state has also made unprecedented progress in the storage capacity of agricultural products, due to which the loss of these products has come down. In order to increase the yield of various agricultural products, product-specific groups were developed at the district level in the state, such as orange cultivation was encouraged in the districts of Mandsaur, Neemuch, Rajgarh, Shajapur, Dewas, Sihor, etc.
Groups were developed in the districts of Morena, Sheopur, Ratlam, Ujjain, Shajapur, Sihor, Sagar, Vidisha, etc. to increase guava cultivation. To increase the production of Burhanpur, Khargone, Barwah, Khandwa, Harda, Dhar, Morena, Gwalior, Shivpuri, Rajgarh, Shajapur, Ujjain, Indore, Dewas and green peas for the production of bananas, Gwalior, Datia, Sagar, Clusters were developed at Jabalpur, Narsinghpur, Seoni, Chhindwara.
Mainly Western nations have resorted to industrial development to accelerate the GDP growth rate. But Madhya Pradesh has been able to register a sharp increase in GDP by registering more than 14 percent growth in agriculture during the last five years. The state's per capita income has also increased to the US $ 1,324. While between October 2019 and June, 2020, there has been a foreign investment of $ 17.29 million. Madhya Pradesh also seems to be doing exemplary work in the field of solar energy production. The Prime Minister has recently inaugurated Asia's largest 750 MW solar power project in Rewa.