Search

The SCATSAT-1 (Scatterometer Satellite) was launched by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) on September 26, 2016 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India. With nearly five years of its journey, the Ku-band (13.5 GHz) based SCATSAT-1 made a profound impact on many scientific domains such as ocean-atmosphere dynamics, soil moisture and vegetation dynamics, climate change, hydrology and polar sea-ice and snowmelt studies. As a successor of the Oceansat-2 Scatterometer (OSCAT), the SCATSAT-1 supports the long-term analysis in climate studies, crop yield prediction, and forecasting analysis. In addition, the SCATSAT-1 provides the four different levels of data products at an enhanced resolution to improve the scope of the scatterometer in different applications. Recently the SCATSAT-1 has been explored in many emerging applications apart from oceanography e.g., crop growth, snow cover analysis, jute crop detection and river level estimation with advanced algorithms i.e., machine learning-based classification, information fusion, and super-resolution mapping. Therefore, it is desired to summarise all operational SCATSAT-1 products, applications, and their emerging trends at the global level in the various scientific domains. This paper has summarized the progress made by SCATSAT-1 in different scientific domains since its launch. A meta-analysis has also been conducted in this paper (using the SCOPUS database) to analyse the current research status of SCATSAT-1 in terms of study area targets. This study highlights the features, challenges, and future directions for the scatterometer improvements. • To summarise the historic & current scatterometer missions for earth exploration. • To know the physics & chemistry of earth using data products of SCATSAT-1. • To explore the applications in cryosphere, oceanography, agriculture & hydrology. • To analyse the current status through meta-analysis of published articles. • To summarise the challenges & future directions for the scatterometer improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grape farms face many climate risks during cultivation, and regulatory and sustainability-related challenges after the harvest. To support the farmers, Government of India (GoI) aims to promote adaptive capacity throughout the grape value chain by improving resilient infrastructure. This paper proposes a novel Grapevoltaics farm design based on shared circular business model principles where resources like energy, water, and land are shared between grape farmer and solar plant operator. The resilience (in the near term) and sustainability (in the long term) of such multifunctional systems may be influenced by the decisions taken by the involved stakeholders in terms of resource sharing and support extension when facing climate risk events. To address stakeholder engagement, the proposed Grapevoltaic farms leverage blockchain smart contract, making them Blockchain-enabled Grapevoltaics (BCeDGVs). To understand the feasibility, 1-ha Grapevoltaic farm is modeled for 12 grape growing regions accross India and analysed using Resilience Performance, Life Cycle Analysis, and Techno-Economic (RePLiCATE) approach. The results show that the solar panels provide resilience support based on the rules of engagement written on blockchain smart contracts. The BCeDGVs has 1295.28–2908.08 kWh/kWp/day electricity generation potential across India with a lifetime average of 15,380.65 MWh even after considering the national average photovoltaic degradation rate of 1.9%. The observed grape yields vary between 2 and 31.25 Mt/ha with an average yield of 45 Mt/ha (table grape) and 40 Mt/ha (wine grape), and the rainwater harvest varies between 1.23 to 7.32 M l. The economic assessment revealed that grape farmers and photovoltaic plant operators across India under BCeDGVs could have revenues ranging between INR 56.25 to 225 million and INR 29.48–66.19 million, respectively, suggesting to relook into the feed-in tariffs and crop selling prices. The environmental sustainability results suggest that 1.984 ha/MW land-use mitigation and 12–100% reduction in groundwater dependency are possible while maintaining the minimum and maximum national average global warming potentials as 0.074 and 0.088 kg CO 2 -eq./kg grape, respectively. Overall, the integrated assessments find that the BCeDGVs may promote low carbon, climate resilient grape cultivation in India and has possible integration with GoI's GrapeNet platform. This study highlights a new research direction symbiotic grape farms and energy networks. [Display omitted] • Grapevoltaics co-locate Vitis vinifera cultivation with solar photovoltaics. • Blockchain smart contract facilitated shared circular business model in agriculture. • Harvested rainwater cut emissions for grape crop and solar panel cleaning. • Dynamic operation of solar panels protects the grape crop from rain events. • Grapevoltaics integration with APEDA's GrapeNET platform, Govt. of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public-private partnerships are crucial for advancing agricultural sustainability and tackling issues related to enhancing global food security. They help make technology accessible to farmers so they can access markets. As PPPs bring together participants from the public, private, and civil society, they are commonly touted as a means of boosting productivity and fostering growth in the agriculture and food sectors. The PPP can assist in implementing cutting-edge technological breakthroughs and promoting private sector participation to reduce risks that could otherwise be excessive. PPPs are commonly understood as having the potential to modernize the agriculture industry and offer numerous concessions to help farmers achieve sustainable agricultural growth. The objective of the present study is to understand how these new partnerships are expected to play significant roles in identifying answers to the most important agricultural problems that Indian Agriculture is confronting. The study further aims to understand the critical issues in PPPs in the agriculture sector in the Indian context by analyzing their interrelationships and prioritization. The study utilizes Grey DEMATEL to determine these contextual relationships for PPP issues. Grey systems theory is a methodology that incorporates improbability and vagueness into the analysis. The critical issues in agricultural PPPs, as identified in the study, are "Complex and Time-Consuming Procedures", "Governance Issues", "Lack of Enabling Environment", "Costly Contracting and Endogenous Contract Incompleteness", and "Coordination Failures". The present paper makes an effort to provide a detailed and exhaustive assessment of difficulties in agriculture PPPs in India, as well as a path forward for policymakers. • Analysing the key issues in PPPs in agriculture in the Indian context. • Interrelationships and prioritization of these issues. • Using the Grey DEMATEL to determine these contextual relationships for PPP issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian agriculture is highly vulnerable to climate shocks, such as floods, droughts and heat-stress. In this paper, using a dynamic panel-data approach we have assessed the impact of rainfall-deficit and heat-stress on agricultural productivity, and subsequently evaluated effectiveness of crop diversification in mitigating their adverse effects. The findings show that both rainfall-deficit and heat-stress damage agricultural productivity, and the damage increases with increase in their severity. Nevertheless, we find crop diversification as an important ex ante adaptation measure to climatic shocks and its adaptation benefits are more apparent against severe shocks and in the long-run. Our findings reinforce the dynamic role of crop diversification in improving resilience of agricultural production systems to climatic shocks. • There exists a dynamic relationship between climatic shocks, diversification and system productivity. • Climatic shocks adversely affect system productivity, and the effect intensifies with their rising severity. • Diversification enhances resilience of production system to climatic shocks. • Resilience benefits of diversification are more apparent in the long-run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary International trade in medicinal herbal products is growing, while value chains are becoming more complex and governed by a range of public and private standards. There is a debate over the extent to which phytomedicine production can be beneficial for farmers in low- and middle-income countries. More generally, there are varied views about the extent to which small farmers are disadvantaged by stringent public health and private consumer standards in northern markets for agricultural products. This paper proves a comparative analysis of value chains, using case studies of turmeric production in India. It marries a qualitative investigation of turmeric producing sites in India with an investigation into the chemical quality of various turmeric products. The aim of the paper is to understand the way that varied structure and governance of value chains changes the benefits to both producer and consumer. When production is for the organic northern market, we found evidence of a “captive” value chain, where the lead firm requires strict adherence to conditions of production and processing. Prices for farmers were relatively stable, at a reasonably high level. In contrast, where farmers were producing for local markets, including the major auction at Erode, prices were volatile and farmers bore considerable risk. We found that competition and volatility in the market-based chain can lead to turmeric adulteration and contamination, both intentional and unintentional. Our case study suggests that many small turmeric farmers would find it difficult to meet both public and private health standards, in contrast to some academic literature that argues that public health standards do not discriminate against small farmers. More than this, our study adds to the discussion of the impact of standards, suggesting clear consumer benefits in northern markets. However, there are also indications that only larger and more dynamic farmers can participate in the lucrative phytomedicine trade. As such, our study tentatively supports previous literature suggesting that the application of standards in northern markets lead to increasing farmer differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fisheries and aquaculture have emerged as a promising food production sector at the global level as well as regional levels. Fish and fish products are produced in one region and then are traded across various parts of the world. The whole sector is dependent on chains of workers engaged at landing centres, breeding units, processing units, and the trade and export chains. When the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown hit the country, it affected the whole sector and caused a huge decline in the production and trade of fishing products. This article aims to have a glimpse into the aquaculture sector and evaluate the impact of the pandemic on this sector in India. This valuable information can be of great importance to government and aquatic food suppliers so that they can evolve their strategies to withstand ongoing and future pandemics. It also helps them in framing regional and sectorial adjustments to transform investment plans, match market demands, improve monitoring strategies and get prepared for future needs. • The purpose of this article is to have a glimpse into the aquaculture sector and evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this sector in India. • This valuable information can be of great importance to the government and aquatic food suppliers so that they can evolve their strategies to withstand ongoing and future pandemics. • It also helps them frame regional and sectorial adjustments to transform investment plans, match market demands, improve monitoring strategies and prepare for future needs. • Some of the major challenges the entire fishing community faced during the COVID-19 lockdown are (i)difficulty in hiring truck drivers for transport of cargo. • (ii) Delayed seaweed seed material transportation. • (iii) Total shutdown of shrimp processing unit, forced engagement of minimal labour in shrimp feed, medicine and probiotics industries. • and (iv) Negative impacts on the livelihood of local fishermen due to fishing ban and low demand. • The paper also summarizes the reformations in the aquaculture sector in India to future pandemics. • Outbreak of COVID-19 has stimulated digital transformation across many aquaculture supply chain in India to reduce the dependence on manpower. • Scientific farming practices, the inclusion of technology and decreasing the over-dependency on export (around 90%) can recover the sector and can help take it to a desired level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate variability has been shown to have adverse effects on morbidity and mortality. Less is known about its effects on psychological well-being, especially in developing countries with agriculture-based economies. In this paper, we test whether extreme temperature and precipitation in India have an effect on self-reported depression symptoms, cognitive and sleep difficulties, and ability to cope with and control life. We use time and geographic variation in weather and show that hot weather in the previous year worsens psychological well-being among rural, but not urban, Indian adults. We examine potential mechanisms and show that the effect is largely driven by hot temperatures during the agricultural season and could be partly attributed to a reduction in agricultural production. We further provide suggestive evidence that the effects of weather shocks could be mitigated with poverty reduction programs such as India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Poor mental health has been associated with low productivity and high healthcare expenditures and is a serious concern in India and many developing countries. The adverse impacts of climate change on rural, agriculture-based economies such as India are likely to increase over time. Given that nearly half of the global population lives in rural areas and is vulnerable to climate variability, understanding the effects of climate on psychological well-being and identifying potential resolutions is critical for insuring vulnerable populations and breaking the poverty cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Geographical Indications (GIs) are increasingly conceived as a development tool. However there are insufficient empirical and conceptual grounds to fine tune their institutionalization. This paper investigates the need for and the role of State intervention in GIs using comparative analysis of the trajectories of Basmati rice and Rooibos tea, emblematic products respectively from India and South Africa. The social relevance of GIs depends on the State’s conception and examination of the link to the origin embodied in the GI. Institutionalization should consider GI as a hybrid between a public quality standard and a specific IPR to protect a heritage-based reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is predicted to increase in the future, with detrimental consequences for rainfed crops that are dependent on natural rainfall (i.e. non-irrigated). Given that many crops grown under rainfed conditions support the livelihoods of low-income farmers, it is important to highlight the vulnerability of rainfed areas to climate change in order to anticipate potential risks to food security. In this paper, we focus on India, where ~ 50% of rice is grown under rainfed conditions, and we employ statistical models (climate envelope models (CEMs) and boosted regression trees (BRTs)) to map changes in climate suitability for rainfed rice cultivation at a regional level (~ 18 × 18 km cell resolution) under projected future (2050) climate change (IPCC RCPs 2.6 and 8.5, using three GCMs: BCC-CSM1.1, MIROC-ESM-CHEM, and HadGEM2-ES). We quantify the occurrence of rice (whether or not rainfed rice is commonly grown, using CEMs) and rice extent (area under cultivation, using BRTs) during the summer monsoon in relation to four climate variables that affect rice growth and yield namely ratio of precipitation to evapotranspiration ( PER ), maximum and minimum temperatures ( T max and T min ), and total rainfall during harvesting. Our models described the occurrence and extent of rice very well (CEMs for occurrence, ensemble AUC = 0.92; BRTs for extent, Pearson's r = 0.87). PER was the most important predictor of rainfed rice occurrence, and it was positively related to rainfed rice area, but all four climate variables were important for determining the extent of rice cultivation. Our models project that 15%–40% of current rainfed rice growing areas will be at risk (i.e. decline in climate suitability or become completely unsuitable). However, our models project considerable variation across India in the impact of future climate change: eastern and northern India are the locations most at risk, but parts of central and western India may benefit from increased precipitation. Hence our CEM and BRT models agree on the locations most at risk, but there is less consensus about the degree of risk at these locations. Our results help to identify locations where livelihoods of low-income farmers and regional food security may be threatened in the next few decades by climate changes. The use of more drought-resilient rice varieties and better irrigation infrastructure in these regions may help to reduce these impacts and reduce the vulnerability of farmers dependent on rainfed cropping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social norms can determine the effectiveness of agricultural research-and-development (R&D) interventions to enable inclusive rural development. However, only a few methods have been tested and deemed appropriate to assess the strength of social norms in empirical research. In this paper, we explore the potential of vignettes to study gender norms across different caste groups in the Indian rurality. The primary data were collected through a gender-differentiated survey among 420 wheat-farming households in 18 rural villages of Central India in 2018. The data analysis showed significant inter- and intra-household heterogeneities concerning individuals' realization of social norms as factors curtailing individual aspirations. When the follow-up responses were evaluated against respondents' socio-cultural context, we found that respondents from marginalized castes, women, and young people were more pro-women in their outlook than others. We also found that the individual responses elicited from women farmers were strongly associated with their decision-making abilities and could be employed in empirical studies concerning various R&D interventions and technological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary In the context of climate change and its effect on poverty, previous studies have shown that productivity shocks in agriculture, such as rainfall variability, affect wages adversely. None of the studies, however, consider the heterogeneity in the impact of these shocks on agricultural wages by gender, a feature which has been studied for demand shocks in urban labor markets for developed countries. Using National Sample Survey data for India from 1993 to 2007, a district-level panel dataset is created to examine how a rainfall shock affects the gender wage gap. The study shows that both female and male wages are positively related to rainfall shocks. Hence, future studies must study the impact of labor market shocks in rural areas on both female and male wages separately. It also finds that the female-to-male wage ratio is significantly positively associated with a rainfall shock in regions where rainfed rice is cultivated, i.e., low (high) rainfall reduces (increases) the female-to-male ratio. The study demonstrates that this result is due to a positive association of demand for female labor with rainfall in these rainfed rice-growing regions. This finding is consistent with the greater marginal value of female labor in rice cultivation, which is also a crop highly sensitive to rainfall variability under rainfed conditions. The paper concludes that the effect of a rainfall shock on the gender wage gap depends upon the gender roles underlying the technology of production, which varies across cropping systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an investigation of various adaptations of rice based cropping systems to climate variability in India's Telangana State. All adaptations were generated through participatory engagement and were field-tested with local smallholder households before being evaluated through cropping system simulation analysis. This approach contrasts with most research about adaptation of cropping systems to climate variability and climate change that is mostly based on simplifying assumptions about current farmer management practices and where the feasibility of implementing proposed adaptations is rarely tested. In this study, the investigation commenced with discussions about climate related issues in rice based farming systems between researchers, farmers and NGOs in three villages in three Mandals of the state of Telangana. Participatory intervention was used to identify new practices that could provide more adaptive and robust responses to climate variability. Suggested adaptations were implemented in on-farm experimentation. Fields demonstrating these adaptations were monitored and results were discussed with participating farmers at regular ‘Climate Club’ village meetings. Crop and soil data from these fields were used to locally parameterise the cropping systems simulator APSIM. Local adaptations that were trialled in the villages were simulated using local soil and long term historical weather data. In each of the case studies, a number of adaptations that were developed and implemented in the villages were shown through simulation to be successful in terms of agricultural production, stability of yields and resource use efficiency. Of the adaptations investigated, sowing rules to reduce the chance of crop failure due to early dry spells were most readily adopted and are also relatively easy to extend to other villages. Strategic irrigation of rainfed crops such as maize and cotton resulted in significant gains to profitability and stability of these crops but cannot be considered in isolation where access to water is limited. Reduced irrigation of rice resulted in over 60 mm/ha/yr. savings in water and some improvements in gross margins but this adaptation was not popular with farmers due to its burden on labour and added risks associated with unreliable supply of electricity for pumping at critical times. The reduced rice area for strategic irrigation of rainfed crops adaptation resulted in improved gross margins per hectare per year and higher net water productivity. This adaptation is most promising but will require institutional change around water use policy and more equitable allocation of limited water resources within villages. These results led us to the proposition that participatory action research with smallholder farmers, coupled with field-testing and simulation analysis can produce practical and productive adaptations to climate variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The study evaluates the impact of regional farm radio broadcasts on adoption of rice and wheat HYVs in India. • Radio increased the percent gross cropped area under the spatially heterogeneous rice HYVs by 2.4 pp. or close to 0.3 SDs. • It had no impact on wheat HYVs, a spatially homogeneous technology with ample social learning. • Radio increased rice yields by 15% but had no impact on wheat yields. Can mass communication play a role in spurring technology adoption and productivity growth in agriculture, particularly when there are significant barriers to social learning? To answer this question, I estimate the impact of regional radio broadcasts, that included significant farm programming, on the adoption of high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of rice and wheat during the Green Revolution in India. I exploit the staggered expansion of the regional radio network to identify the impact. Using an annual district-level administrative dataset from 1966 to 1978, I find that introduction of regional farm radio broadcasts led to a large persistent increase in the adoption of HYVs of rice, a spatially heterogeneous technology less amenable to social learning. By contrast, there was at most a transient impact on the adoption of HYVs of wheat, a spatially homogeneous technology with a lot of scope for social learning. Importantly, I find that the regional farm radio broadcasts increased rice yields by 15%, a magnitude potentially large enough to justify the investments in the expansion of the regional radio network. Overall, this paper demonstrates that mass communication can indeed play a key role in diffusing profitable agricultural innovations when there are significant barriers to social learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture crop residue burning in the tropics is a major source of the global atmospheric aerosols and monitoring their long-range transport is an important element in climate change studies. In this paper, we study the effects of agriculture crop residue burning on aerosol properties and long-range transport over northern India during a smoke event that occurred between 09 and 17 November 2013, with the help of satellite measurements and model simulation data. Satellite data observations on aerosol properties suggested transport of particles from agriculture crop residue burning in Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) over large regions. Additionally, ECMWF winds at 850 hPa have been used to trace the source, path and spatial extent of smoke events. Most of the smoke aerosols, during the study period, travel from a west-to-east pathway from the source-to-sink region. Furthermore, aerosol vertical profiles from CALIPSO show a layer of thick smoke extending from surface to an altitude of about 3 km. Smoke aerosols emitted from biomass burning activity from Punjab have been found to be a major contributor to the deterioration of local air quality over the NE Indian region due to their long range transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs have taken aim at malnutrition's multi-sectoral roots through re-diversifying agricultural production while integrating women's empowerment and nutrition behavior-change communication components. For these integrated nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs, women-led self-help groups have emerged as promising platforms for program delivery. Yet, while well-designed nutrition behavior-change communication has been successfully used in self-help groups, and is central to nutrition-sensitive agriculture, it can take many forms. These vary widely in their theoretical and ethical underpinnings, communication strategies, and theory of change. As nutrition-sensitive agriculture continues to proliferate, it is critical to better understand how women interact with different behavior-change messages and how to engage individuals in ethical, effective ways. This paper analyzes qualitative data collected from a nutrition-sensitive agricultural project in India that used participatory storytelling to generate knowledge and awareness about malnutrition among women. Drawing from data across two sites, the paper analyzes why certain messages generated more discussion among women then others. We find self-help group women were drawn to topics of early marriage and diet diversity because they emotionally connected to them, and felt they were relevant to their lives with high perceived pay-off and actionability. While other topics on gender and health also provoked emotional, lively discussions, the stories were less effective due to their complexity, which were difficult for volunteer facilitators to communicate. We conclude that there is unmet demand among women in rural India for structured spaces to discuss gendered aspects of health and diet, and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs could benefit from focusing attention here. • Engages debates on health behavior change communication (BCC) ethics and efficacy. • Examines modified participatory learning and action (PLA) run in women's groups. • Finds women were drawn to simple, actionable messages they emotionally related to. • Insufficient investment in volunteers' PLA facilitation skills hampered impact. • There is need for more BCC focused on women as women, rather than mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is one of the major constraints to sustainable improvement of agricultural productivity in the rainfed farming systems. In this paper, we have examined the frequency, severity and spread of droughts in India, and assessed their impact on rice production. Our results show that one-third of the rice area in India is affected by droughts, mostly moderate droughts, the frequency of which has increased in recent years. The severity of droughts, however, has reduced. An assessment of their impact reveals a decline in drought-induced losses in rice yield, in absolute as well as relative terms. The weakening effect of droughts is attributed to improvements in farmers’ adaptive capacity due to expansion of irrigation facilities and increased availability of improved varieties for the rainfed production systems, along with other coping strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) spurred a new direction of research in agricultural and farming domain. In recent times, WSNs are widely applied in various agricultural applications. In this paper, we review the potential WSN applications, and the specific issues and challenges associated with deploying WSNs for improved farming. To focus on the specific requirements, the devices, sensors and communication techniques associated with WSNs in agricultural applications are analyzed comprehensively. We present various case studies to thoroughly explore the existing solutions proposed in the literature in various categories according to their design and implementation related parameters. In this regard, the WSN deployments for various farming applications in the Indian as well as global scenario are surveyed. We highlight the prospects and problems of these solutions, while identifying the factors for improvement and future directions of work using the new age technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian wheat cultivation changed radically in the 1960s due to new technologies and policy reforms introduced during the Green Revolution, and farmers' adoption of ‘packages’ of modern seeds, fertilizer, and irrigation. Just prior to the Green Revolution, Indian scientists adopted a new plant breeding philosophy—that varieties should have as wide an adaptation as possible, meaning high and stable yields across different environments. But scientists also argued that wide adaptation could be achieved by selecting only plants that did well in high fertility and irrigated environments. Scientists claimed that widely adapted varieties still produce high yields in marginal areas. Many people have criticized the Green Revolution for its unequal spread of benefits, but none of these critiques address wide adaptation—the core tenant held by Indian agricultural scientists to justify their focus on highly productive land while ignoring marginal or rainfed agriculture. This paper also describes Norman Borlaug's and the Rockefeller Foundation's research program in wide adaptation, Borlaug's involvement in the Indian wheat program, and internal debates about wide adaptation and selection under ideal conditions among Indian scientists. It argues that scientists leveraged the concept of wide adaptation to justify a particular regime of research focused on high production agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper looks at productivity differentials across women and men managed farms in India. • We find that productivity on women managed farms is on an average 11% lower than male managed farms. • This gap reduces to 7% once crop choice, input usage, location and farmer characteristics are controlled for. • Semi-parametric decomposition shows that productivity differential remains largest in lower part of the value distribution. • Heterogeneity analyses shows inadequate experience among women managers as a contributor to the residual productivity gap. In India, role of women as farm managers has been veiled behind image of men as primary decision makers on farms. Data shows that approximately 8% farm households had women farm managers in India in 2004, and this number increased to 11% in 2011. This rising phenomenon of farm management by women begets an in depth understanding about these farms, including, differentials in productivity levels across men and women managers. This paper uses three measures to capture productivity – production value, profit value and crop specific yields. Results show that total farm production and profits are lower by approximately 11% in households where women manage farms. This falls to 7% when controls for crop choice, input usage, location and farmer characteristics are included. The main mediating factors in explaining the productivity gap are crop choice and input usage, explaining almost 45% of the productivity gap. Further, the paper provides suggestive evidence on mechanisms contributing to the remaining productivity difference that cannot be explained by differences in observed characteristics. It shows that inadequate experience of women farm managers in agricultural production processes can be an important factor behind the remaining gap. The study makes two contributions to the literature – one, it is the first quantitative study in the Indian context on gender differentials in farm productivity and second, it applies semi-parametric decomposition techniques to look at the productivity differentials along the entire distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Women in agriculture allocate significant time to agriculture and household activities. • Rising time demands during peak season agriculture may affect women's nutrition. • Women's time trade-offs negatively affect consumption of various nutrients. • These associations vary by cropping pattern & land ownership. • Policies must recognize women's time constraints to improve their nutrition. Women in agriculture are involved in agricultural activities and are solely responsible for household-level unpaid work. They face severe time trade-offs between agricultural and household activities across crop seasons. Recent literature suggests that these time trade-offs may negatively impact their nutrition. However, there is no quantitative evidence exploring this relationship within an agricultural context. This paper addresses this research gap by analyzing the relationship between women's time trade-offs and their nutritional outcomes. Using a unique ten-month primary panel data of 960 women from India, our findings show that women are severely time-constrained, as they contribute significantly to agricultural as well as domestic work. Our results show that during peak seasons relative to lean seasons, women's time trade-offs (rising opportunity cost of time) are negatively associated with the intake of calories, proteins, iron,zinc and Vitamin A. We show that this negative relationship is manifested severely among women who are landless and cultivate paddy alone (food crop) or paddy and cotton (mixed crop). This study highlights the gendered role of agricultural activities in rural households and the need to recognize time as a scarce resource when implementing policies and programs involving women in agriculture. We contribute to the literature of agriculture-nutrition linkages by examining the the time use pathway in detail. Besides providing novel metrics, we discuss several policy implications to reduce women's time constraints and enhance their nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The out-migration of labor has significant adverse affect on rural labor sending area as well as left behind community. • The education of left behind children is adversely affected due to lack of guidance resultant by absence of parent(s). • The left-behind wives of the migrant faced various security issues, heavy workload though temporarily posses some short of autonomy due to absent of their migrant husband. • A mixed effect can be found on agricultural productivity in the rural sending area. • Migration might reduce labor supply and farm output due to high wage rate and input cost. The rural to urban migration of poor labor to cope with poverty is a common household strategy in rural India and is socio-economically and culturally accepted. Migration can bring some economic gain through remittances, but it also becomes a pain for migrants themselves, their family and the local economy at the origin. In this context, the present paper aims to study the effect of labor out-migration on the socio-economic set up at the place of origin. Based on the primary data of 200 households, the study found that, although the economic condition of the family is improved, the absence of father adversely affects the education and behavior of left-behind children. The wives of the migrant mainly faced security problems and increased workload in the household and farm activities. The study also found that migration might reduced labor supply and decreases farm output due to high wage and input cost. However, agricultural productivity can later increase through compensation by the reinvestment of remittances as farm inputs by the migrant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Physical, biological and physiological properties of Makhana (Euryle ferox salisb). • Agronomic management techniques of Makhana in relation to environmental ecosystem for its cultivation. • Constraints and future prospects in Makhana production. • Makhana as an alternative to agricultural systems for rural sustainability. Makhana (Euryle ferox Salisb.) or foxnut is an aquatic food crop, which is normally grown in ponds. The importance of this crop is increasing day-by-day due to its high carbohydrate and protein, and low fat content, and also due to its religious offerings. The cultivation of Makhana involves a lot of drudgery as all the operations like sowing, interculture, harvesting and processing are done manually. This paper explores the agronomic management techniques of Makhana in relation to environmental system from its cultivation to post-processing practices. Due to its unique biological, physiological and agronomic traits, Makhana is able to exploit small as well as marginal pond owners to be included in low-input cropping systems, representing an alternative viable aquatic food crop for sustainable agriculture in rural India. Nevertheless this great potential and the considerable increase in new generation consumer demand for Makhana as ready to eat food, the future of the crop is still uncertain. Indeed, the main obstacles to Makhana production are: (1) the limited areas of cultivation where it is traditionally grown, (2) lack of quality breeder seeds, (3) lack of knowledge on management practices and limited resources, and (4) very high price. The present review highlights the immense potentiality of Makhana as a food crop to explore aquatic resources and need of extending the research towards a sustainable system by integrating it with field crops and marine life i.e. aquaculture with agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]