Agriculture accounts for about One-quarter of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India and employs about two-thirds of its workforce. Agricultural Performance witnessed a dip in the 1990s partly on account of subdued public investment in agriculture and inadequate diversification. The decline public investment was only partially compensated by the rise in private investment. With the WTO regulations coming into force in phases, it is time that our agricultural sector gears up to face the competition from other emerging and developed economies of the world. The Government has initiated few steps and revitalized policies which should give thrust to agricultural production in the country and induce export competitiveness of our agricultural products. India can continue with all its developmental schemes under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture. These include our subsidies for research, pest and disease control marketing and promotion services, infrastructural services, including capital expenditure for electricity, roads and other means of transport, marketing and port facilities, irrigation facilities, drainage systems and darns etc. For developing countries like India, there are some agricultural subsidies, which are also permissible and need not be reduced. These are investment subsidies that are generally available to low income and resource poor farmers. The types of subsidies mentioned above account for the bulk of the agricultural subsidies provided in India. In this paper Contribution of Agricultural Sector in the Economic Development of the Country is discussed critically.   
 
KEYWORDS: Gross Domestic Product (GDP), WTO, Infrastructural Services. 

Introduction After being virtually neglected through decades of rapid trade liberalization, agricultural Policy- market access, domestic support, and export subsidies -- has become the most contentious topic in trade negotiations. In fact, the lack of progress in agriculture reform has led to several missed deadlines in the latest round of negotiations promoted by the World Trade Organization (WTO), putting at risk the Doha Development Agenda (Cline, 2004; WTO, 2004). The controversial, issues often oppose industrial countries, notably the United States and members of the European Union, and developing nations, led by Brazil, India, and China, with the latter group claiming that tariffs, non tariff harriers, and subsidies give an unfair advantage to farmers in industrialized countries.

Scope of the Study Proposed study will make an attempt to investigate the determinants of agricultural trade of India. There would be an attempt to analyze various agro-trade related negotiations in various summits of WTO and further their implications to the agricultural sector of India. The Government of India had been constantly putting efforts for the agricultural reforms and apart from implementing tariff barriers; it had been offering various subsidies to safeguard its farmers especially in the post WTO period. This study therefore, would also look into the steps taken by the Govt. and would analyze their compatibility to match the global competition. Further, the overall impact of’ WTO on Indian agriculture would be evaluated by identifying its contribution in the economic development of India, especially in the post WTO period.