Due to political instability the eighth plan was delayed by two years and was preceded by two annual plans between April, 1990 and March, 1992. During these annual plans about 21% of the total plan outlay was spent on agriculture and allied activities.
During the first annual plan the production of food grains recorded an increase of 3.13% reaching up to 176.39 million tones but it fell down to 168.37 million tons in the successive annual plan of 1991-92 (a decrease of 4.5%) due to drought conditions. Record shortfall was observed in case of coarse grains, pulses, groundnut and cotton while rice, wheat, sugarcane and jute recorded marginal increase.