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Artificial Intelligence is quickly emerging as a technological solution for the agriculture industry to surmount its classical challenges. Artificial Intelligence is facilitating farmers to refine their products and alleviate unfavourable impacts due to the environment. The central concern of this paper is predictive analytics to develop a machine learning model to identify and predict crop yield based on multiple environmental factors. In this paper, a hybrid learner 'RaNN' is proposed that combines the feature sampling and majority voting technique of Random Forest in-combination with the multilayer Feedforward Neural Network to predict the crop yield. Research has also ascertained the essential features responsible for accurate yield prediction. The proposed model works for rice yield prediction, one of the chief grains of India. The region chosen for the work is Punjab, which is among the largest producer states of India for rice. The dataset consists of 15 attributes comprising the weather and agriculture data collected from the Indian Meteorological Department Pune, and Punjab Environment Information System (ENVIS) Center, Government of India. The study has also made a comparative assessment of 'RaNN' with machine learning methods like Multiple Linear Regression, Random Forest, Decision Tree, Boosting Regression, Support Vector Machine Regression, Ensemble Learner, and Artificial Neural Network. Our model RaNN has listed a better prediction accuracy with minimal error among the other techniques providing a 98% correlation between the actual and the predicted yield. Abbreviations: AI – Artificial Intelligence; ANN – Artificial Neural Network; BR – Boosting Regression; Chem Fert – chemical fertilisers; DT – Decision Tree; EL – Ensemble Learner; ENVIS – Punjab Environment Information System; GBM – Stochastic Gradient Boosting Method; GPS – Global Positioning System; HMAX – highest maximum temperature in degrees C; IMD – Indian Meteorological Department; L1 – Lasso regression; L2 – Ridge regression; LMIN – lowest minimum temperature; ML – Machine Learning; MAE – Mean Absolute Error; MEVP – mean evaporation in mm; MLR – Multiple Linear Regression; MMAX – mean maximum temperature in degrees C; MMIN – mean minimum temperature in degrees C; MSSH – Mean sunshine duration in hours; MWS – mean wind speed in km/h; P1 – number of days with precipitation (0.1–0.2 mm); P2 – number of days with precipitation (greater than or equal to 0.3 mm); RaNN – Hybrid RF-ANN model; RMSE – Root Mean Squared Error; $${R^2}$$ R 2 – Coefficient of determination; RD – number of rainy days; RF – Random Forest; SVM Reg – Support Vector Machine Regression; TMRF – total rainfall per month in mm [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the significant agrarian transformations in India's Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is witnessing a rapid transition into commercial farming and, simultaneously, an increasing trend of deagrarianisation. The study uses a mixed-method approach to investigate why farmers adopt commercial farming in this region and how the processes of deagrarianisation, reconfiguration of land use, and deepening commodification have become inevitable for many small and medium-scale farmers as a result of this process. In the analysis, our empirically tested theoretical model confirms that institutional factors in terms of state support work as a significant driver toward commercialisation. We then argue that combined with the stimulus of the state, a vigorous process of neo-extractivism is being promoted, which renders the substantive changes in agrarian transitions by displacing the subsistence sector. The study highlights that this contemporary commercialisation is altering the social and physical landscape and driving broader forms of dispossession and consolidation of farmlands at micro-levels. Furthermore, it raises questions about the fundamental role of the Indian state's neo-extractivist policies in a politically contested region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a plethora of emerging alternatives under the broad rubric of agroecology, sustainable transitions in Indian agriculture are caught between institutional inertia and lock-ins of its vast agricultural establishment on the one hand and a pro-active state promoting a natural farming. This push for Zero-Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), while welcome as an alternative, also raises several questions on the nature of knowledge production and dissemination. This paper explores the knowledge politics around top-down "skilling regimes" and the principles and paradigms that emphasize social learning. We explore the multiple practices, meanings of agroecology among farmers, government agencies, and civil society organizations in the state of Gujarat. The action research included a survey of practices of 250 farmers in 12 districts, interviews, and stakeholder workshops. Insufficient investments in community-based extension mechanisms and lack of collaboration between state and civil society were features of the policy implementation. The absence of innovative platforms to facilitate knowledge dialogs and learning among actors to advance agroecology increases the gap between policy goals and its actual realization in practice. Programs for upscaling agroecology, we suggest, need to embed the diversity of technical and institutional processes through creating learning alliances to facilitate knowledge dialogs across dissimilar actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the prevalence of child labour and long working hours in India using 2019 data, with estimates for boys and girls that deal with age-related child development concerns related to long hours of work. We use international suggestions to define harmful child labour from ILO and UNICEF and a nationally defined time-threshold model in analysing the child-labour phenomenon. Measuring time by the three measurement systems and splitting children by age, gender, and cultural components make harmful forms of labour become clearer. The results show that girls doing agricultural labour and boys working as non-agricultural labourers had the longest average working hours in India. Important social-group differentials emerge. This study implies that policy-makers can be, and need to be, aware of explicit measures of hours worked by children aged six to 17. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domesticated rice (Oryza sativa), typically a water-intensive crop, is widely cultivated in the semi-arid zones of South India and Sri Lanka and is a staple among sedentary populations in these regions when the opposite should prevail in light of environmental constraints. This paper investigates the origins of large-scale rice cultivation in South India and Sri Lanka and the attendant innovations in hydraulic technologies using a wide range of sources but with a special focus on Tamil "Caṅkam" texts, the earliest surviving textual corpus for the Dravidian language family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of ergonomics principles can be traced back to ancient times, much before the coining of the term 'ergonomics'. Ancient civilisations of Greece, China, and India followed well laid down principles of usability and human factors. These are evident in their furniture design, tool design, and other practices to minimise workers' workload. In ancient India, most daily activities like cooking, dining, defecation, etc., and occupations like pottery making, shoemaking, education in gurukuls (traditional residential schools), etc., used one or the other asanas (postures). The aim was to maintain the body's natural shape, avoiding the ill effects of poor body posture. The present paper reviews those domains of practice viz. posture, architecture, agriculture and furniture design in ancient India (2500 BCE to 1100 CE), where modern ergonomics principles seem evident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tobacco use is associated with an annual global economic cost of two trillion dollars and mortality of half of its regular users. Tobacco leaf cultivation is the starting point of the tobacco cycle. Tobacco farming employs millions of small-scale tobacco farmers around the globe, most of whom are out growers who rely on the tobacco industry. This paper aims to map the regions of greatest tobacco production globally (i.e., the US, Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, and Zambia) and tobacco use rates in these locations. Smoking rates were higher in those areas, except for India, where important population subgroups reported an upward trend for tobacco smoking. In general, there was a relationship between tobacco farming and tobacco smoking. Tobacco farming may lead to a higher risk of tobacco use and lower adherence to tobacco control policies. Therefore, promoting viable alternative livelihoods for tobacco farmers must have dual benefits. Additionally, specific health prevention policies might be necessary for those populations reporting higher tobacco use and lower perception of tobacco-related health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the distribution of climate change impacts on agricultural Total Factor Productivity (TFP) across districts in India. Combining the district-level TFP, estimated using multiple rounds of nationally representative agricultural surveys, with climate and other controls, the relationship between production efficiency and climate is estimated for two time points: 2002–2003 and 2012–2013. The estimated climate response function suggests that for every 1 °C rise in temperature, agricultural productivity reduces by ∼4.5%. Using estimated climate sensitivity and regionally downscaled climate projections, the study further assesses the impacts on agricultural TFP across districts over the mid-century. By 2050, TFP in agriculture is projected to decline for all the states considered in the study. The latter-period (2012–2013) climate response function projects more adverse impacts compared to the early-period (2002–2003) response function. The results also show increase in the magnitude of impacts over time, indicating that Indian agriculture has become more climate sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a prolonged agrarian impasse, agricultural production in West Bengal, India, grew at an unprecedented rate in the 1980s, a process in which the expansion of groundwater irrigation played an important role. The growth of groundwater irrigation and agricultural production, however, decelerated from the early 1990s. This paper argues that the deceleration in groundwater irrigation development in West Bengal since 1995 is primarily attributed to the adoption of different regulatory policies in two ways: directly, through controlling the overall installation of tubewells or decelerating tubewell electrification; and indirectly, through high electricity pricing for water use in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is in the grip of an agrarian crisis. Economic, social, environmental and political forces have adversely affected the relationship between the small-scale primary producer and the production process. In the context of this crisis, traditional knowledge-inspired food systems have given rise to 'islands of success' that have allowed small and marginal farmers to reclaim their livelihoods across the country. In this paper, we analyse three different islands of success using an agro-ecological framework, arguing that such islands of success based on traditional knowledge are becoming an increasingly necessary approach to agriculture. However, political will, political engagement and effective policies that support traditional knowledge in agriculture are required for these islands of success to become waves of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building information modelling (BIM) is being heralded as a remarkable innovation in the built environment sector with expectations of lofty sector-wide improvements. Some countries have shown remarkable levels of uptake of BIM, along the way documenting some evidence of benefits stemming from BIM. However, countries such as India and China are late entrants in the BIM adoption journey and are seeing a slower adoption rate. This study develops a model using the technology–organization–environment framework to study the factors influencing BIM adoption by architectural firms in India and reasons for this slow adoption. The proposed model of BIM adoption is tested using the partial least square method against responses collected from 184 industry professionals based in India. Findings reveal that the adoption of BIM by Indian architectural firms is at the ‘experimentation’ stage with variables such as expertise, trialability, and management support exhibiting a strong positive influence on BIM adoption. The study also explains the status of BIM adoption in India with the help of a multi-level social construct, which places the level of BIM adoption in India between the micro- and meso-levels of organizational scales. Similarities and dissimilarities with previous findings are discussed in the paper to highlight the findings of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present and future landscapes and waterscapes of South Asia consist, in part, of many residues of the past-soils, slopes, and a range of water-related infrastructure. As such, many problems related to irrigation and rural water use are directly linked to the embodied histories of this region. Beyond lineal connections, many contemporary problems such as watershed protection, erosion, reservoir siltation, and falling water tables, were also faced by agriculturalists in the past. Archaeologies of flow thus may have some bearing on the present and future as well as the past. This paper provides a review of the evidence for changes in water use over the last 5,000 years in southern India, focusing on the semi-arid interior region of Karnataka state from the Southern Neolithic (c. 3000-1200 b.c.) to the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmetered electricity supply to agriculture has given rise to a unique and invidious water–energy–food nexus in India. Metering of agricultural consumers has been suggested as a way to break the nexus, but most states have not been able to meter farmers due to their opposition . The only exception is the state of West Bengal. Using primary data from a household survey conducted in 2010 when the metering process was still underway, this paper argues that farmers’ support for metering in West Bengal can be explained in terms of the economics of groundwater use and politics surrounding agriculture and groundwater in the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]