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Agriculture plays a central role in the economic development of a country. The population of India is expected to reach 1.5 billion by 2050 with a current decadal growth rate of ~18%. The review paper is written to highlight the current and future challenges facing the agriculture sector in India. There are various challenges that affect the Indian economy such as food security, soil quality deterioration, water scarcity, lack of proper food storage structures, land degradation etc. Recent pandemic situation has affected the agricultural sectors, will lends to the major changes in the future, which needs to be discussed and planned to meet the future requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this modern era, the detection of plant disease plays a vital role in the sustainability of agricultural ecosystem. Today, India being second in farming, well-timed information related to crop is still questioning. Indian Government's farmer portal is available for pesticides, fertilisers, and farm machinery. To alleviate this problem, the paper describes a model to validate the leaf image, predicting leaf disease and notifying the farmer in an effective way on the harvest failure to stabilise farming income. For specific consideration on the validation, a data set library with predefined, uniformly scaled, regular image patterns of leaf disease, is maintained. The research suggests that farmers utilising the model can predict the breakout of leaf disease predominantly acquiring 100% yield. [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]

Traditionally in Indian agriculture draught animals enables farmers to increase agricultural production and improve the quality of life. However, in recent decades there has been a trend towards replacing draught animals with farm tractors. There is a rapid shift from animal to tractor power but the information about actual declining over the period is very little known. This paper presented results of four phase survey conducted for draught animal and animal powered implement usage in four different locations of central India. The result shows a reduction in range of 76.1% to 90.2%, in draught animal population and 58% to 91% in animal powered implements among these four locations of central India. Present approaches in agriculture inclined towards more use of heavy machines like tractors, combine harvesters, etc. The use of draught animals in small farms was becoming unattractive for various reasons viz. high maintenance cost of draught animals, higher fodder cost, limited working capacity, and drudgery. This reduction in animal and animal powered implement shows a huge transformation in Indian agriculture from traditional to machinery powered farming, but on the other hand it shows changing perception of youth in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, agriculture is recognized as a highly vulnerable sector to climate change and risks from climatic aberrations pose an imminent danger to the food security and sustainability of livelihoods. To bring robustness in climate adaptation planning, evaluation of resilience across homogenous regions is essential for developing and scaling suitable location-need-context specific interventions and policies that build the resilience of the agricultural system. In this paper, we present an analysis and discussion of multi-scalar and multi-indicator assessment, by profiling resilience across agro-climatic zones of India, based on the development of a Climate-Resilient Agriculture Index embracing environmental, technological, socio-economic, and institutional and infrastructural dimension. A total of 26 indicators, spread across these four dimensions, were employed to purport inter- and intra-agro-climatic zone differentials in the level of resilience. Among the zones, it was found that West Coast Plains & Ghats and Tans-Gangetic Plains had the highest degree of resilience to manage climate risks. Most of the districts lying within Eastern Himalayan Region, Middle Gangetic Plains, Eastern Plateau & Hills, and Western Dry Region had a lower degree of resilience. The study places greater emphasis on deciphering region-specific drivers and barriers to resilience at a further disaggregated scale for improving rural well-beings. It is construed that devising action plans emphasizing awareness, preservation of natural resources, diversification, building physical infrastructure, strengthening of grass-root institutions, and mainstreaming climate adaptation in the developmental policy is crucial for climate-resilient pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of new agricultural export policy implemented by the government of India in 2018. Firstly, this paper critically evaluates the different programs undertaken by the Ministry of Commerce under Agricultural Export Policy, 2018 to doubling farmers income by 2022. Further, this article evaluates the impact of new agricultural export policy on enhancing the productivity and profitability on Indian Agriculture. Overall results of the article suggest that new agriculture export policy will set the foundation to make Indian agriculture globally competitive. Ease of doing agricultural business index will encourage health competition between the states. Transport and marketing assistance scheme will help Indian agricultural exporters to more competitive in global market and mitigates the hindrance of a higher cost of transportation. Agricultural Export Cluster will enhance the involvement of small and marginal farmers in the export bracket. Finally, this article discussed that productivity of Indian Agriculture is lower but with the help of new agricultural policy India could enhance the productivity of most of the agriculture goods in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly half of the global populations live in rural area. For the developing country like India, this figure is nearly 70% of the mass population. Currently, major challenges faced by the rural community are lack of clean water, food, good health, energy, stable economy and environment. Nanotechnology and nanoscale materials have the potential for the solutions of many significant challenges faced by our society. This review paper summarized some of the most promising and important nanotechnology applications in agriculture and food, clean water, energy, environment, human health and other consumer products. The review has been concluded with the potential risks of nanomaterials, technical and financial challenges for the implementation of nanotechnology in the rural community developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is an important downside risk in Indian agriculture; and the spatial differences in its intensity and probability of occurrence are considerable. To develop strategies to manage the risk of drought, and to coordinate and implement these strategies, it is essential to understand the variation in drought risk across geographical or administrative levels. This paper, using a multilevel modeling approach, decomposes the variation in drought risk across states, regions, districts, villages and households, and finds it disproportionately distributed. About half the variation is attributed to between-individual (i.e., household) differences and the rest to between-population differences, mainly to states and villages. These findings suggest the potential for a critical role of states (policies) and local institutions (communities) in enhancing resilience of agriculture to droughts through the correct targeting of policies and support for the most appropriate geographic level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission currently provides three surface soil moisture products based solely on instrument measurements. The three soil moisture products are: 1) the radiometer-only 36 km gridded; 2) a radiometer-only enhanced product gridded at 9 km; and 3) a high-resolution (3 km) SMAP-Sentinel active–passive product. It is important to validate these released SMAP soil moisture products over various land covers and hydroclimatic domains before they are routinely used in scientific research and applications. This paper evaluates SMAP-based soil moisture products for typical Indian conditions of extreme seasonal variability that leads to changes from very wet to dry soil, especially for the paddy dominated region. The assessment metrics indicate that the enhanced passive-only soil moisture product meets the SMAP accuracy requirement of 0.04 m3/m3 during the nongrowing season (NGS) with unbiased root-mean-square error (ubRMSE) values ranging between 0.025 and 0.036 m3/m3. However, this product underperformed during the paddy growing season (GS) with ubRMSE values ranging between 0.063 and 0.097 m3/m3. In addition, the SMAP-Sentinel active–passive soil moisture product shows satisfactory performance during the NGS (ubRMSE, 0.017–0.051 m3/m3), but during the GS, ubRMSE ranged between 0.089 and 0.104 m3/m3. Use of the vegetation water content climatology and low clay fraction in SMAP baseline algorithm (auxiliary database) that mismatched with the actual values may be the possible source of errors and biases in the SMAP soil moisture products. The reported study provides guidelines for the application of enhanced SMAP soil moisture products in India, especially for the tropical region, and provides information that can be used to improve the retrieval algorithm. [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]

This research aims to have a holistic view of the relationship between agriculture outcome/output and agricultural spending in India. The unique part of the study is that it highlighted the nexus between agriculture outputs from a historical point of view. The empirical part of this study is analyzed using the development of the co-integration method followed by the VECM model. The empirical analysis shows -a long-run association between agriculture spending and production, and this feedback is bidirectional. Agricultural production positively responds to agricultural spending in India both in the short and long run, especially in sowing seasons. However, the exciting finding of the study is that the speed of adjustment of agricultural spending on output is plodding. This implies that any shock of the agricultural production can be corrected by agricultural spending by just 20 percent, and it will take more than four years to stabilize the agricultural output with agricultural expenditure. Thus the tendency of agrarian spending to stabilize agrarian output in India is not so encouraging. [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]

This paper explores the social inclusiveness of agricultural extension services in India. We estimate the probability and frequency of farmers’ access to extension services and resulting changes in crop income across different caste groups. The literature suggests that caste-based social segregation manifests in various spheres of life, and perpetuates economic inequality and oppression. An econometric analysis of nationally-representative data from rural India verifies this with respect to the agricultural sector. Farmers belonging to the socially-marginalized castes are found to have a lower chance of accessing the public extension services, primarily due to their inferior resource-endowment status. Contacting extension agents at least once increased the average annual crop income by about 12 thousand Indian rupees per household, which is equivalent to 36% of the annual crop income of those without access to extension services. There exists significant impact heterogeneity. Farmers from the socially-marginalized castes hardly benefited from accessing the extension services. Based on these observations, we have developed a number of policy recommendations that could improve the social inclusiveness of agricultural development strategies in rural India. [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]

The idea of a 'good farmer' who adheres to scientific methods of crop production and produces high yields was commonly articulated by scientists and some farmers in Malwa, central India, while evaluating soybean farming. However, through detailed ethnographic description of the everyday practices of soybean farmers in Malwa, this paper argues that there is no direct link between scientific methods and high productivity, defined as yield per unit of land, because the outcome is dependent on variables that cannot be controlled by farmers. Rather, the metaphor of a 'good farmer' was selectively used by upper-caste farmers to reinforce their power and authority in the face of declining state support to emphasize their continued importance to agriculture and the state. When upper-caste farmers were less productive, they placed the blame on the environment, but when lower-caste farmers produced less, the blame was placed on their (lack of) capability to understand scientific techniques that were expected to increase productivity. This paper suggests that instead of using the productivity discourse to evaluate farming, a different valuation reveals the positive contribution of soybean as a poor farmer's crop due to its agronomic characteristics and market environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of climate change on agriculture and food system is well studied. Altered rainfall pattern or temperature significantly influences crop productivity. This results into the socioeconomic vulnerability affecting the food system and security. Even though there are numerous independent studies carried out on the aspects of climate change, food security and nutrition availability, there are few studies interlinking them, particularly in Indian context. There is a dire necessity to understand the inter-linkage among these three owing to the population growth rate in India. Present paper gives an overview on (a) what are the impacts of climate change on agriculture productivity in India; (b) how the altered productivity is going to influence food security and (c) how does the nutritional availability score in Indian context. The discussion paper also focuses on the policy steps taken by Government of India to safeguard the food security of the population. [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]

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly used for knowledge management (KM) currently. However the full potential of ICTs are yet to be realized due to several challenges. This paper explores the challenges in using ICT for KM using the case of Agropedia, an ICT mediated knowledge management platform for Indian agriculture. The paper argues that KM is no longer a technical challenge but is rather constrained by social and organizational barriers. Without initiating institutional and policy changes to address these barriers, ICTs cannot contribute significantly to KM. By March 2014, Agropedia had close to 8500 registered users and 33,062 published nodes solely dedicated to agriculture and 24 crop knowledge models. A total of 35 institutional Agropedias and a mother Agropedia were created for a better content management system. In conclusion, the deployment of ICT in agriculture is found to be a socio-technical process, facing social and organisational challenges. Against this background, knowledge sharing needs to be incentivised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, progress against undernutrition has been slow. Given its importance for income generation, improving diets, care practices, and maternal health, the agriculture sector is widely regarded as playing an important role in accelerating the reduction in undernutrition. This paper comprehensively maps existing evidence along agriculture-nutrition pathways in India and assesses both the quality and coverage of the existing literature. We present a conceptual framework delineating six key pathways between agriculture and nutrition. Three pathways pertain to the nutritional impacts of farm production, farm incomes, and food prices. The other three pertain to agriculture-gender linkages. After an extensive search, we found 78 research papers that provided evidence to populate these pathways. The literature suggests that Indian agriculture has a range of important influences on nutrition. Agriculture seems to influence diets even when controlling for income, and relative food prices could partly explain observed dietary changes in recent decades. The evidence on agriculture-gender linkages to nutrition is relatively weak. Sizeable knowledge gaps remain. The root causes of these gaps include an interdisciplinary disconnect between nutrition and economics/agriculture, a related problem of inadequate survey data, and limited policy-driven experimentation. Closing these gaps is essential to strengthening the agriculture sector's contribution to reducing undernutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of 35,640 papers published by Indian scientists as journal articles and reviews in journals indexed by Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) in 2008 revealed that 6231 (17.5%) papers remained uncited during 2008-2013. Most of the uncited papers were published by State Agricultural Universities and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The highest proportion of uncited papers was in the discipline of agricultural sciences followed by multidisciplinary and mathematical sciences. These uncited papers appeared in journals published from India, Singapore, Romania and Japan with low impact factor (IF). Lowest number of uncited papers was published by the Department of Biotechnology. It was also found that a small fraction of papers published in journals with IF more than 5 also remained uncited. [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]

This paper has documented the difficulties faced by farmers due to demonetization, facilities existing for making digital payments and farmers' opinion about it. The study has used primary data collected through farm survey done in October 2017, almost a year after demonetization. The survey was made in three adopted villages under MGMG (Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav) scheme in Palwal district of Haryana. Results have shown that due to demonetization farmers faced numerous difficulties (both crop production and family related activities). They could not use quality inputs (particularly seeds of wheat) in desired quantity, got delayed payment of their crop produce and faced problems in drawing money from bank. Family and societal needs were also affected. Payment in cash was the main mode of transactions (and even now) for food and non-food articles. Analysis revealed that large number of farmers have bank account and are availing facilities of debit cum ATM card, but their functional literacy and infrastructure are inadequate. Farmers' expressed both merits and demerits about digital payments. Nevertheless, without removing fear of farmers and other rural people and bringing change in their attitude, moving towards digital mode of transactions will not trigger desired results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture in future can be expected to be competitive, knowledge-intensive and market driven. Modern frontier technologies involving systems approach towards efficient crop and input management, land and water use planning are essential for Indian agriculture to meet the challenges in the present context. Further, increasing the productivity level of a pollution free technological factor of production is inevitable. With this concern the present study was carried out in North Eastern parts of Karnataka state, where the precision farming technology was implemented. Hence, an attempt has been made through present paper to study the extent of usage of precision farming technologies at farm level. The technologies implemented were GPS, GIS, variable rate applications of inputs, crop sensors etc. Adopters were aware of benefits of management aspects like size of grid, soil sampling, soil analysis, variable rate of application of fertilizers, laser levelling and harvesting by grids. But still, precision farming has yet to take its firm ground in India by moving from its infant stage. This is possible by dissemination of technology and its benefits by bringing awareness among farming community through efforts of Department of Agriculture by using SAUs and NGOs as channels. [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]

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]

Why has the share of non-institutional finance sources for agricultural households not come down between 2002 and 2012? Is the dependency on non-institutional sources the same across farm size classes? Who are the major beneficiaries of the revival in agricultural credit in the 2000s? Are larger farmers becoming more productive and commercial thus requiring higher levels of credit? Are small farms becoming unviable, making it difficult for banks to finance them? This paper examines these issues empirically based on data from the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural households and the All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS) conducted by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) in its 59th (i.e. 2003) and 70th round (i.e. 2013) and various publications from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice is one of the most dominant crop in Assam occupying about 70 per cent of the net cultivated area. It accounts for about 6 per cent of the national rice area and 4 per cent of production of India. This paper makes an attempt to examine the growth trend, instability and factors influencing rice production in Assam over the period 1972-73 to 2014-15. Annual Compound Growth Rates of area, production and yield is calculated using log-linear function. Coefficient of Variation is employed to assess the instability of rice production in Assam. To estimate the impact of various factors on rice production in Assam, three types of models are used namely linear model, log-linear model and a log-linear model with autocorrelation corrections. In all the models, the dependent variable is rice yield and the independent variables are yearly average rainfall, yearly average temperature of the state; area of rice cultivation in hectare; area covered by HYV seeds in hectare; area covered by irrigation in hectare; fertilizer used in kg per hectare. The estimated result of log-linear model with autocorrelation corrections shows that among the various determinants influencing rice production during the period 1972 to 2014, area under rice cultivation in hectares; area covered by HYV seeds in hectare; fertilizer used in kg per hectare were found to have a positive significant impact on rice production in Assam. Temperature is found to have a negative impact on rice production. [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]

The paper explores the significance of development in irrigation technology in agrarian transformation. Although the subject falls in the area of agrarian economics or development economics the paper addresses the subject from anthropological point of view touching upon the contribution of Prof. N. C. Choudhury to this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration influences the society, polity, geography, culture, demography and economy in different ways and degrees. From the global macro level to the rural micro level via nation-states and other politico-spatial formations it exerts influence at all levels. This paper is based on the field survey conducted in two cities i.e., Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh (the destination) and Barpeta in Assam (the source). The experiences from the field survey demonstrate that people from a particular religious minority from rural Barpeta have been migrating since last two decades to Lucknow and they have found their livelihoods in waste. It is a kind of long distance rural-urban migration. There are mixed reasons to migrate. Hence, it is a kind of complex yet interesting situation where a certain linguistic community has migrated to a distant land, chosen to indulge in a menial job and the state is indifferent to include them in mainstream development policies because of their contested identities. [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]

This paper explores the food insecurity level and coping strategies of two particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) in India. It finds that despite the availability of resources, limited income always becomes a proxy for their food vulnerability because they cannot purchase food items outside state programmes. These groups traditionally adopt various coping strategies to overcome food insecurity at household level and these have become a structure and behaviour for ensuring food security [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is a major occupation for people who inhabit the state of West Bengal in India. In order to boost irrigation, 570 tube wells per year were installed during 2002-2008, and 12,000 wells per year were installed during 2009-2013, contributing to higher groundwater (GW) withdrawal. However, the impact of tube wells on GW storage levels has not been well-studied, both spatially and temporally. Hence, this study used remote sensing data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and the Global Land Data Assimilation Systems to assess change in GW storage. Results showed that GW is being depleted at 8, 5.3, and 14.7 cm (Billion Cubic Meters)/year during the study period. After tube well intensification, the state-wide average net GW recharge was 15.33 BCM/year, while the net GW discharge was at 19 BCM/year. The spatiotemporal GW storage data presented in this paper will benefit managers and policymakers in identifying suitable mitigation plans for future management of GW resources. [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]

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]

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]

Purpose Evaluating a portfolio of agricultural loans has become an important issue in recent years primarily due to a large number of loan defaults. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing credit repayment behavior of farmers in Karnataka.Design/methodology/approach The study is based on secondary data of 590 farmers collected from a private bank in the state of Karnataka, India. Binary logistic regression and multinomial regression analysis was carried out to estimate the probability of non-payment of a loan.Findings The results of the regression confirm a significant relationship between non-repayment of agricultural credit and characteristics of borrowers such as the age, years of banking relationship, yield of the crop, distance to bank branch, size and tenure of the loan, farm size and leverage and efficiency ratio.Practical implications The factors predicted by the model do certainly help in improving the decision-making process in agricultural lending. A rigorous assessment of family responsibilities, farm size, credit-to-asset ratio, interest burden on the farmers and farm income is suggested to reduce the probability of doubtful assets.Originality/value The studies that predict default risk in agricultural loan are limited in India. This is one of the few studies that estimate the determinants of substandard and doubtful categories of credit in a private sector bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper gives an overview of open access (OA) institutional digital repositories (IDRs) in agricultural fields. The main objective is to provide free and unrestricted access to the public funded research outputs in global-scale in the domain of agricultural by developing a single window search interface as a useful tool for agricultural researchers in developing countries with special reference to India keeping in view the exorbitant cost of research output. It reports the design and development of a federated search interface, viz. AgriCat that facilitates resource sharing through extracting metadata from different OAI (Open Archives Initiative) compatible agricultural IDRs registered in OpenDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories) database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India, located in south central Asia, has great economic dependence on agriculture. A likely impact of climate change on agricultural productivity is causing great concern to the scientists and planners in the country. Weather forecasting at different spatial and temporal scales would be significant tool for adaption in agriculture under future climate change scenario. In the present paper, detailed elaboration has been made how the stateof- art technologies of weather forecasting including the climate projections can be taken as a tool to reduce the negative impacts of climate change and climatic variability. Also for combating the climate change issues, the adaptation requires effective and timely delivery and exchange of all supporting mechanism and meteorological information. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can also play a great role to disseminate the information. Efforts were also made to show the active role of on-going and proposed ICTs for adaptation in agriculture to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, climate change is one of the most challenging environmental issues as it poses potential threat to different sectors of economy at global level. Agriculture being an open activity is primarily dependent on climatic factors and change in climatic conditions affects the production, quality and quantity of crop production in an area. This paper attempts to study effects of only two parameters of climate i.e. temperature and rainfall on agricultural production in northwest region of India. Northwest region comprising of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu Kashmir states is the greatest food bowl of India contributing to its food security. The analysis of mean monthly rainfall and maximum and minimum temperatures (1901-2006) shows no significant change in temperature and rainfall conditions from 1901 to 1960; but afterward the change is more pronounced. On the whole any significant change in climatic conditions will not only challenge the food production of the region but also challenge the country's food security situation. [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 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]

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]

Application of agricultural technologies has been supportive for fulfilling the requirements of food and raw material of an individual and an industry as well. But it has also injured the farming community in India without providing adequate treatment for physical and economic health. What are the measures available for the safety and social security of farming communities by which risk can be ameliorated? This paper examines such predicaments by locating the response of the scientific community engaged in the research and development of agricultural technologies. The discussion is based upon the transcript obtained after in-depth interviews of the scientific community. An effort has been made to interpret the empirical reality of occupational health hazards in farming relating to emerging social security measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India’s poor performance on critical food and nutrition security indicators despite substantial economic prosperity has been widely documented. These failings not only hamper national progress, but also contribute significantly to the global undernourished population, particularly children. While the recently passed National Food Security Act 2013 adopts a life-cycle approach to expand coverage of subsidized food grains to the most vulnerable households and address food security, there remains much to be desired in the legislation. Access to adequate food for 1·24 billion people is a multifaceted problem requiring an interconnected set of policy measures to tackle the various factors affecting food and nutrition security in India. In the present opinion paper, we discuss a fivefold strategy that incorporates a life-cycle approach, spanning reproductive health, bolstering citizen participation in existing national programmes, empowering women, advancing agriculture and better monitoring the Public Distribution System in order to fill the gaps in both access and adequacy of food and nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]