Search

A review of the article "Agricultural biotechnology and crop productivity: macro-level evidences on contribution of Bt cotton in India" by S.K. Srivastava and D. Kolady, is presented.

Today, the farmers are suffering from the lack of rains and scarcity of water. The traditional farmland irrigation the main objective of this paper is to provide an automatic irrigation system thereby saving time, money & power of the farmer, as water supply is becoming scarce in today's world there is an urgency of adopting smart ways of irrigation. It also helps in conserving water by automatically providing water to the plants/field depending on the water requirements[1]. The objective of this system is to detect the moisture content of the soil and depending on the basis it generates the water with the automated technology of irrigation. Soil is recognized as one of the most valuable natural resource where soil pH property used to describe the degree of acidity or basicity which affects nutrient availability and ultimately plant growth. pH value of the soil is determined and accordingly crops or plants are suggested that can be grown in that field. Due to detection of soil pH value the chances of crops destruction becomes less, with this we can say that automatic irrigation system provides less effort and generates the good result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to include land as an input in the KLEMS-type production function and estimate agricultural total factor productivity growth (TFPG) for India. For doing so, land quality is accounted for by assigning weights to different land types: irrigated, rainfed and fallow. The estimates suggest that the rate of agricultural TFPG was 0.8 per cent per annum between 1980 and 2019 without accounting for land. However, it increased to 2.0 per cent and 1.8 per cent per annum with the inclusion of land and land quality, respectively. The growth accounting decomposition shows that the contribution of TFPG to agricultural output growth increased from 48 per cent in the 1980s to 78 per cent in the 2010s. Examination of the drivers of agricultural TFPG through an Autoregressive Distributed Lagged (ARDL) model suggests that public gross capital formation (GCF) stock, research and development, mechanisation in agriculture, and favourable terms of trade significantly improve agricultural productivity in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is an agricultural country; wherein about 70% of the population depends on agriculture. Agriculture has changed more in the past century than it has since farming began many millennia ago. Research in agriculture is aimed towards increase of productivity and food quality at reduced expenditure and with increased profit. Current crop production practices, often called Precision Agriculture (PA), benefited from all earlier revolutions in crop production. Many times expert advice may not be affordable, majority times the availability of expert and their services may consume time. Image processing along with availability of communication network can change the situation of getting the expert advice well within time and at affordable cost since image processing was the effective tool for analysis of parameters. Image processing techniques in agriculture are mainly used for image categorization based on shape, size, color and texture for decision-making. This leads to agricultural input rationalization and environmental damage reduction by adjusting the agricultural practices like fertilizer and pesticide application to the site that demands and profit maximization. This paper intends to focus on the survey of application of image processing in agriculture field such as imaging techniques, weed detection and fruit grading. This paper presents a survey on some of the existing image processing techniques in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tomato is a most economic vegetable in India. Covers major area in its cultivation during crop production, it is threatened by major viral disease i.e tomato leaf curl disease, caused by begomovirus and transmitted by the vector. It causes yield loss up to 90-100 per cent, application of insecticide for the control of vector causes regular outbreak. Identification of resistant source from wild species and their introgression with susceptible source, development of lines/varieties, resistant/tolerant to Tomato leaf curl disease is the safest and long term alternative for solving this problem. This paper covers the major aspect related to virus, virus causing factors, vectors and sources of disease resistance and also breeding tools employed for its resistance and some of the barriers in breeding programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India agricultural and packaging technology practices are constantly evolving to enhance crop production by improving soil quality and creating suitable environments, respectively. Mulching and improved packaging films have emerged as popular methods, but the use of non-biodegradable polyethylene (PE) for both poses disposal challenges. To address this, the focus has shifted to the biodegradable polymer, polylactic acid (PLA), in combination with fruit peel waste powder as filler. This literature review paper was written to describe a detailed survey about PLA with the incorporation of increasing amounts of fruit peel waste to enhance the properties of the PLA film. The primary aim was to explore the potential of PLA mulch film with the incorporation of fruit peel waste as an environmentally friendly alternative for mulching application in agriculture. To date we know of no review article published regarding the incorporation of fruit peel waste as a filler within the PLA matrix to enhance the properties of the films used in agriculture and the packaging industry. Moreover, this review paper also describes recent trends in the application and methods of preparation of PLA mulch films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cotton production is of paramount importance in India due to its significant impact on various aspects of the country's economy, agriculture, and society. This paper studied the Growth, Instability, and export potentials of cotton in India. This is based on secondary data and data analyzed for three periods viz., Period I (1959-60 to 1978-79), Period II (1979-80 to 1998-99), and period III (1999-00 to 2018-19). The study revealed that the growth of production and productivity of cotton in India increased from periods 1 to 3. The overall period bare that the production growth rate of cotton in India increased significantly by 3.5 percent annually, which is because the productivity rate increased significantly by 2.75 percent per annum, whereas the area also increases significantly at a rate of 0.72 percent annually. The relative contribution of area and price effect was positive with high output growth of cotton due to the development of many policies related to area extension and price policy by the government. The RSCA value in 2012 was -0.02 to -0.08, which would be attributed to an increase in domestic demand and a reduction in ambiguity. The results of RCA revealed that India is leading Agriculture Institutions and state Agriculture Universities should focus on developing high yielding varieties of cotton for cotton export. The government should also support farmers to increase the export and production of Cotton in india [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper investigates the effects of climate change along with ecological and carbon footprint on rice crop production in India during 1982–2016. Design/methodology/approach: The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), canonical cointegration regression (CCR) and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) models are used in the paper. Findings: A long-run relationship is found between climate change and rice production in India. Results report that ecological footprint and carbon footprint spur long-term rice production. While rainfall boosts rice crop productivity in the short term, it has a negative long-term impact. Further, the findings of ARDL models are validated by other cointegration models, i.e., the FMOLS and CCR models. Research limitations/implications: This study provides insights into the role of ecological footprint and carbon footprint along with climate variables in relation to rice production. Originality/value: In the literature, the effects of ecological and carbon footprint on rice production are missing. Therefore, this is the first study to empirically examine the impact of climate change along with ecological footprint and carbon footprint on rice production in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About 70% of India's economy is involved in the agriculture sector to live their lives and contributed to the GDP of the country. The Crop yield information along with the environmental change estimate will be useful for the agriculturalist to decide on price policies prior to harvesting the food source. It establishes a requirement for the prediction model, which precisely determines the harvest conditions, crop varieties, and agricultural yield. In literature, numerous crop prediction methods were devised to estimate crop production in the agricultural field & each technique has its potential in terms of yield forecasting. This review article provides a detailed analysis of the utilized approaches in the literature for the prediction of crop production as well as a discussion on the identification of concerns related to the yield gaps of crops. The discussed approaches were classified based on the application of different strategies, such as Machine learning methods, Deep learning methods, Data mining techniques, vegetative indices, fuzzy logic, and hybrid methods. The study was analyzed based on performance metrics, year of publication, datasets employed, software used for experimentation, and performance attained using various methods and highlights the research gaps of the respective method along with the future direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide an analysis of the agricultural productivity of food grains across the states of India. Despite agriculture's diminishing role as a share of overall gross domestic product (GDP) in India, it plays a crucial role by providing a large proportion of jobs to the workforce. Acknowledging the central role of agriculture in the economy as well as the diversity between the states in terms of availability of resources, this study analyses the impact of various inputs like land area, fertilizers, electricity and labour use on the production efficiency of food grains at the state level from 2006 to 2017 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI). The results highlight the variation in the performance of states with five out of selected 20 states experiencing efficiency under the CCR model of DEA and nine out of 20 states being efficient under the BCC model of DEA. MPI results indicate that 11 out of 20 states have progressed in terms of MPI during the period under consideration. The paper highlights the possibility of increasing agricultural production with optimizing the inputs by focusing on efficient resource deployment and enhanced production management. The paper investigates the relationship between various agricultural inputs and food grain production efficiency using DEA and provides a way to improve on the allocation of these resources across various Indian states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural production in developing countries is heavily rainfall dependent. Any unexpected variation in rainfall can affect the welfare of households. Using unit record data from India, this paper shows that households can insure against agricultural productivity (rainfall) shocks. Evidence suggests that they do so by varying the time allocation of individual members to different activities, particularly to regular wage work and human capital accumulation. There is a gender‐differentiated aspect to this response. Rainfall shocks adversely affect women's human capital accumulation. While there is no evidence that households use participation in NREGS to insure against rainfall shocks, the availability of NREGS helps reduce the impact of rainfall shocks on human capital accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty remains a major challenge for the countries of the global south. Decent employment opportunity, a crucial determinant of poverty reduction, is increasingly becoming elusive for those countries regardless of a decent rate of economic growth. There is a growing separation of economic growth and employment growth under the aegis of neo-liberal economic policies. Economic growth, instead of becoming inclusive, turns out to be “jobless” or “job loss.” Failing to reverse this trend, “Active Labour Market Policies” (ALMPs) in the form of “Public Works Programmes” (PWPs) have emerged as a major strategy to reduce unemployment and poverty. Secondly, rural–urban migration is very much relied upon for the same. Raising agricultural productivity, a crucial question of “agrarian transition,” well evident and verified across the globe, is, however, becoming oblivion in the fight against poverty. In this context, based on a primary survey of 300 households in the poorest regions of India, this paper endeavors to investigate the relative strength of MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), rural–urban migration, and land productivity on poverty. The study suggests that an agrarian-centric intervention is more effective in dealing with poverty as compared to MGNREGA (ALMPs) and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reviewed paper describes the importance and role of modern technology in farm sector in India. Technological changes are the crucial driving forces for increasing farm productivity and promoting farm development in all developing countries. In past the adoption of mechanization in farm was started due to the green revolution, then government want to fulfill the demand of food grains of population. But now the dimensions are changed from last few decades' policies for farm, research and development, trade, training and education has been strong impact on the adoption of technology, the level of farm production and agricultural practices. It is recognized fact that improved modern inputs and machinery are major determinants of farm output, yet it is important to interpret the relationship of mechanization with other social and economic factors. Study also concluded the crop wise adoption of mechanization, farm machinery, major driving forces in social change, participation of women in farm, agribusiness, cost and the labor employed in the farm sector. The paper also recommends suggestions, to ensure that the farm sector takes its rightful place in our economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fund allocation in agricultural sector in India is heavily tilted toward input subsidies provision; however, researchers seem to favor investment expenditure instead. The present paper seeks to compare the usefulness of input subsidies as compared to investment with regard to agricultural productivity so that policy makers hit the right tool and avoid less productive state expenditure. We investigated a total of four regression models using autoregressive and distributed lag cointegration in a time series framework covering period from 1983 to 2019. The first model considers all input subsidies in aggregate form, and the rest three models take input subsidies in disaggregate forms, namely fertilizer subsidy, irrigation subsidy and power subsidy, respectively. It is observed from the results that input subsidies still contribute more than what public investment does to agricultural productivity. It is also found that power subsidy is the most effective component of input subsidies followed by fertilizer subsidy. Hence, government expenditure on input subsidies is justified on the ground that it ensures all farmers to have access to affordable agricultural inputs. Targeted subsidies combined with adequate investment in agricultural infrastructure could deliver long-term agricultural development in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Belgrade is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Agriculture and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Industrial revolution and fast deforestation in 20th century pushes the earth to face climate change. Climate change became one of the most important global environmental challenges of the 21st century. Besides other weather abnormalities it is potential threat to world food security as agriculture production is directly dependent on various weather parameters. Even a small alteration in climate, adversely affects agriculture by decreasing the production. Global temperatures have already increased by 0.70°C over the past century and prediction of more rise of temperature is there. Possible changes in temperature, precipitation and CO2 concentration are expected to significantly impact crop growth. India could experience a 40% decline in agricultural productivity by the 2080s. Various food grain crops are going to affect badly under the temperature rise situation. It has been projected that under the scenario of a 2.50°C to 4.90°C temperature rise, rice yields will drop by 32% to 40% and wheat yields by 41% to 52%. This paper summarized study related to climate change projections and its impact on production of various crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is an important sector for developing countries like India. However, the development of agricultural production has been hindered by certain issues related to the use of traditional systems. In the past, much research has been carried out to modernize the agricultural system. However, there is a need for low-cost and easy-to-use technological solutions to the poor farmers of the country. Hence, the paper aims at making the existing agricultural system smart by using IoT. A compact, lightweight and integrated system has been developed comprising multi-sensors to measure all the parameters and continuously monitor the soil content, weather conditions, temperature and humidity. All parameters are real-time monitored over the Internet of Things (IoT), thereby making it remotely accessible from anywhere with the help of an android application. The paper proposes an arduino-based automatic irrigation IoT system which can increase the productivity of the crop eventually. Thus, a basic implementation of some sensors along with wireless networking would come out as a boon to the farmers. The results obtained are considerable and under tolerable ranges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is furnished with a comprehensive review of nature and extent of rural livelihood diversification with special focus on North-Eastern region of India. This study reveals that the tribal communities of this region adopt livelihood diversification as a strategy of coping with risk due to persistent low agricultural productivity and population pressure. Despite this fact, the extent of diversification is low. Agriculture and land still occupies main source of income. It is evident from this article that this region has great potentialities of diversification towards multiple income sources. But difficult terrain and geographical isolation of this region make these resources yet to be properly utilised. The aim of this review article is to point out some issues related to livelihood diversification of North-Eastern region for further research and also try to attract the eyes of policy makers towards the potentialities of livelihood options available in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years concerns have been raised regarding the environmental consequences of over-use of nitrogen fertilizers on a global level. However, the balance between sustainability and agricultural productivity, a central concern for policy makers in developing countries, has not been sufficiently addressed. In this paper, I evaluate farmers' fertilization practices and their effect on yield using unique plot level data from India. I estimate quadratic crop response functions for different crops and cropping systems. To address endogenous input choices, I use input prices and cost shifters from the fertilizer industry as instrumental variables for the fertilization practice. I find that a large share of Indian cultivators overuse nitrogen relative to the other two nutrients, and could benefit from simply reducing the amount of nitrogen used while keeping the other nutrients fixed. This suggests a potential win-win situation where both productivity and sustainability can be improved by changing fertilizer application. The widespread "nitrogen-only" fertilization pattern is rejected as optimal in most cases. [EconLit Citations: Q12, Q15, Q16, E23, C26, C14]. [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]

Background: Crop yield prediction is an important issue for the proper selection of crop for sowing. Earlier prediction of crop is done by the farmer’s experience on a particular type of field and crop. Predicting the crop is done by the farmer’s experience based on the factors like soil types, climatic condition, seasons and weather, rainfall and irrigation facilities. Methods: Data mining techniques is the better choice for predicting the crop. Different Data Mining techniques are used and evaluated in agriculture for estimating the future year’s crop production. This research proposes and implements a system to predict crop yield from soil data. This is achieved by applying Decision Tree Algorithm on agricultural data. The main aim of this research is to pinpoint the accuracy of Decision Tree Algorithm and C 5.0 algorithm which is used to predict the crop yield. Result: This paper presents a brief analysis of Crop yield prediction using data mining technique based decision tree algorithm and C5.0 algorithm for the selected region (Krishnagiri) district of Tamil Nadu in India. The experimental result shows that the proposed work efficiently to determine the accuracy of decision tree algorithm and also to predict the crop yield production using R- Tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses a major threat to global food security. Agricultural systems that rely on monsoon rainfall are especially vulnerable to changes in climate variability. This paper uses machine learning to deepen understanding of how monsoon variability impacts agricultural productivity. We demonstrate that random forest modelling is effective in representing rice production variability in response to monsoon weather variability. Our random forest modelling found monsoon weather predictors explain similar levels of detrended anomaly variation in both rice yield (33%) and area harvested (35%). The role of weather in explaining harvested rice area highlights that production area changes are an important pathway through which weather extremes impact agricultural productivity, which may exacerbate losses that occur through changes in per-area yields. We find that downwelling shortwave radiation flux is the most important weather variable in explaining variation in yield anomalies, with proportion of area under irrigation being the most important predictor overall. Machine learning modelling is capable of representing crop-climate variability in monsoonal agriculture and reveals additional information compared to traditional parametric models. For example, non-linear yield and area responses of irrigation, monsoon onset and season length all match biophysical expectations. Overall, we find that random forest modelling can reveal complex non-linearities and interactions between climate and rice production variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jute and allied fibres viz., mesta including kenaf, roselle, ramie, sunhemp, sisal and flax are important industrial crops and the sources of livelihood of about 4 million farm families and supports direct employment to about 3.7 lakh workers. They accounted for about 0.36%, 0.51% and 0.45 of the gross-, net cropped area and total arable land, respectively, in India during 2018-19. The contribution of jute crop to the global acreage and production during 2018 was 49.4% and 53.7%, respectively. Its contribution to global production was reduced to 50.5% during 2019. The present paper analyses the growth of jute and allied crops during 1950-51 to 2020-21; scenario of area, production and yield; breeding and seed production during 2010-11-2021-22. The Compound Annual Growth rate was 0.21%, 1.52% and 1.31%, respectively, for area, production and yield during 1950-51 to 2020-21. The area and production of jute and allied fibres have decreased substantially during the last 12 years despite the enhancement of yield ha-1 from 2197 kg ha-1 in 2010-11 to 2709 kg ha-1 in 2021-22. Of the total 310 varieties of fibre crops (including cotton) released and notified during 2011-23, 43 were of these crops. In jute, leading varieties in the seed chain contributing highest to the breeder seed indent, such as Navin, Suren (JRO 204) and JRO 128 were old released during 1978, 2007 and 2002, respectively, and very old varieties released up to 1995 had a considerably high share in breeder seed indent during 2021-22. During the period under study (2014-15 to 2021-22), there was no indent for breeder seed production of mesta except in 2016-17 and 2021-22 and against the indent of 0.5 q for two varieties, Satyen (JRKM 9-1, released in 2016) and Central Kenaf 2 (JBMP 2, released in 2016), 1.7 q breeder seed was produced during 2016-17. But, during 2021-22 only 22 kg breeder seed against the indent of 9 kg for three varieties HC7910 (Ujjal), released during 1977; HS 4288, released during 1967 and JRM 5 (Shrestha), released during 2010, was produced. In sunhemp, only five varieties, SUIN 037, SUIN 053, JRG 610 (Prankur), PAU 1691 and Chhindwara 1 (Jabalpur 1) were indented for breeder seed production from 2016-17 to 2021-22 released during 2013, 2009, 2015, 2008 and 1973, respectively. Therefore, old varieties for jute and sunhemp need to be replaced in the seed chain. However, no systematic seed production is being followed for other fibre crops like mesta, ramie, sisal and flax. Public sector organizations contributed only up to 30% of the seed requirement of jute in the country. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase the share of the public sector in seed production to ensure 'seed security' as well as its affordability and timely availability. The possibility should also be explored for jute seed production in areas close to the proximity to the area of cultivation by incentivizing seed production. Systematic seed/planting materials production of other crops such as ramie, sisal and flax that have very low acreage but important fibre crops with specific niches of cultivation should also be initiated / strengthened to ensure availability of quality seed/planting materials to the farmers. Since these are industrial crops, therefore, there is an urgent need to develop linkages with private sector especially textile industry, Farmers' Producing Organizations and Non-Government Organizations for enhancing production of seed/planting materials and also expanding them in new niches by developing suitable models and incentivizing production of fibres from these crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has committed to reducing the emissions intensity of GDP by 33–35% from the 2005 level by 2030 in alignment with objectives of the Paris Agreement. This will require a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the food and land-use sector. In this paper, we construct three potential pathways for India to achieve its emissions target by 2050 involving moderate ambitions of mitigation action (BAU), moderate ambitions combined with achieving healthy diets (BAU + NIN), and high levels of mitigation action inclusive of healthy diets (SUSTAINABLE). Using an integrated accounting tool, the FABLE Calculator, that harmonizes various socioeconomic and biophysical data, we project these pathways under the conditions of cross-country balanced trade flows. Results from the projections show that the demand for cereals will increase by 2050, leading to increased GHG emissions under BAU. Under the SUSTAINABLE pathways, GHG emissions will decrease over the same period due to reduced demand for cereals, whereas significant crop productivity and harvest intensity gains would lead to increased crop production. The exercise reveals the indispensability of healthy diets, improved crop, and livestock productivity, and net-zero deforestation in achieving India's mid-century emission targets from the agriculture sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Northeast region of India is endowed with diverse soil and agro-climatic conditions that are conducive to the growth of a large variety of temperate and tropical horticultural crops. Fruits, vegetables, and spices of the region are highly nutritious and have a market within and outside the country. The paper is an attempt to assess the potential of horticulture in the region. To gauge the state-wise and regional growth trend and variability in area and production of these crops during the period 2009-2019, Compound Annual Growth rates and Instability Index have been computed from secondary data. The study reveals a rising regional growth trend with low instability for the production of fruits and vegetables and moderate instability for spices. This indicates the possibility of sustainable development of horticulture in all the Northeast states through strategic planning. Fruits and spices of the region also have a market in Middle-East and neighbouring countries. However, lack of commercialisation, poor market intelligence, and linkages are impeding the growth of exports. To unleash the true potential of horticulture, it is imperative to develop infrastructure, modernise farming and establish seamless value chains with greater market integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature examining the three-way linkage between weather/climate variability, agricultural productivity and migration. Highlighting low elasticity of migration to agricultural productivity in India, the paper explores potential reasons behind low rural-urban/inter-state migration rates. The paper further provides evidence on short-term migration in India and discusses a potential manifestation of the same in the form of feminization of agriculture. The paper argues for enabling policies that enhance non-agricultural rural livelihood options as well as policies that facilitate greater participation of women in agricultural management. [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]

Much sustainable development in agri-food systems is predicated upon increasing the production of agricultural commodities amid changing climates, political organization, and markets. While this growth in exports is critical for the expansion of alternative production supply chains like certified organic commodities markets, the long-term success of alternative agriculture development programs in helping farmers achieve a range of rural aspirations depends not on sociotechnical fixes for specific ecological problems, but on the creative and performative reorganizations of labor and value in farm spaces. Degrowth, a political-economic theory of reorganizing production to achieve socio-ecological sustainability over the long term, provides a framework to evaluate the lasting impact of alternative agricultural development or persistent smallholder farming beyond the production or sale of agricultural commodities. This paper draws on research with organic cotton and coffee farmers in India, as well as a brief case study with small-scale heritage farmers in Bosnia, to argue that sustainability, broadly conceived, must account for factors beyond resource-efficiency or yields. Small-scale organic farming in India and household allotments in Bosnia will never outperform agri-food commodities producers with respect to profits, yields, or sustained growth. However, a degrowth perspective suggests that these are the wrong metrics for sustainability. Efforts that keep farmers in place and with local autonomy are best positioned to ensure that small-scale farmers can continue to manage agricultural landscapes over the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the association between agricultural productivity and religious riots in a setting of an abrupt productivity increase in India. I find heterogeneity in the impacts of the gains across different crop regions. Crop cultivation methods determine the differential allocation of labour to the conflict and agricultural sectors. I show that in the labour-intensive rice growing regions there was a decline in conflict while in the capital-intensive wheat growing regions there was not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the population of India is continuously rising so we have to adopt some means of sustaining our agricultural growth and it can be done through conservation farming. The best way out is the adoption of the age old practice of mulching in our agricultural fields. Mulching is an agricultural and horticultural technique in which the use of organic materials and synthetic materials for the purpose of increasing soil productivity is involved. In rainfed area, judicious use of water is essential for improving crop productivity. Therefore, mulching has been advocated as an effective means for conserving soil moisture. This technique is very useful in protecting the roots of the plants from heat, cold or drought or to keep fruit free from diseases and insect pests. Mulching is an old age technique to conserve soil moisture, checks evaporation, check the weed growth, moderate soil temperature and provide congenial microclimatic conditions for plant growth and development. This technology is a boon for the horticulture crops not only for increasing growth, development, yield but also a method for soil and water conservation. This review paper deals with the various effects of mulching on plants, soil as well as on soil microflora. This technology has brought a great revolution in the agriculture especially for water conservation and proves to be a fastest growing plasticultural technique in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some of the key pathways linking agriculture and nutrition run through women's work, yet the evidence on these links are weak. Using time-use data from two Indian districts, this paper seeks to fill this gap. In principle, women's agricultural work could have positive and negative implications for nutrition, through increased control over incomes or intensifying work burdens. The emerging evidence points to the nuanced ways in which social identity, seasonality, and context mediate women's work in agriculture and consequently food intakes and feeding practices. Overall, women's work in agriculture seems to have a negative effect on household nutrition through two pathways: lack of adequate time for care work in peak agricultural seasons, and seasonal energy deficits that adversely affect their own health. Recognition of women's physical contributions to both agricultural production and domestic reproduction, and supporting them adequately, is central to improving nutritional outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the importance of generating proper water accounts for large gravity-based irrigation schemes in order to assess scheme performance. It shows how the use of simplistic criteria used to assess the performance of gravity-based irrigation schemes can lead to an underestimation of the role they play in enhancing food security and agricultural production in countries such as India, which has established a huge network of irrigation canals. The paper offers specific suggestions on improving irrigation statistics that, in turn, can help in better evaluation of the returns on investments of public surface irrigation schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper discusses about a new concept of establishment of Farmers' University and Farmers' Bank in India. The trend of university more focuses into academic, research and education related programmes for students. The university supports more student growth than farmer's development. The proposed Farmers' University emphasizes farmer-participatory education, research and extension activities with active involvement of scientists, farmers and agriculture graduates The research and training programmes, demonstration etc. will be provided by employing agriculture graduates. The university will conduct scientific crop production and farm - centred activities for farmers' growth. The farm linked activities and crop production would be clubbed with research for technology development. The Farmers' University will function with farmers involvement. The proposed Farmers' Bank is a specialized bank for farmers' services. The Farmers' Bank will assist to manage risks of Farmers associated with crop and livestock, initiate Risk Protection Insurance and guide farmers in government schemes and benefits to farmers. The Farmers' Bank is available for farmers in Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Virginia, Princeton and Union ville countries. The university and bank may be established in the main district of the state. The university and bank would generate employment for agriculture graduates and promote rural, urban and education development. This step forbids violence and miscreant and forms harmony and peace in the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State Agricultural Universities, (SAUs), in India, have adopted the U.S. land-grant model to meet its goals. They are autonomous organisations with state-wide responsibility for agricultural education, research and extension education. Through teaching, research and extension activities the 64 SAUs across 28 states of India are significantly contributing to agricultural production and productivity of their respective states directly and therefore to the rural development. SAUs rural development strategies include technologies and innovations, extension and human resource development. Regional Agricultural Research Stations in various agro-climatic zones have strengthened research-extension-farmer (REF) linkages. KVKs under administrative control of SAUs serve as farm science centres of their respective districts. In this paper, the rural development approaches of Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh is detailed. Furthermore, strategic planning by the SAUs to increase their effectiveness for direct rural development should be sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automation of agricultural food production is growing in popularity in scientific communities and industry. The main goal of automation is to identify and detect weeds in the crop. Weed intervention for the duration of crop establishment is a serious difficulty for wheat in North India. The soil nutrient is important for crop production. Weeds usually compete for light, water and air of nutrients and space from the target crop. This research paper assesses the growth rate of weeds due to macronutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) absorbed from various soils (fertile, clay and loamy) in the rabi crop field. The weed image data have been collected from three different places in Madhya Pradesh, India with 10 different rabi crops (Maize, Lucerne, Cumin, Coriander, Wheat, Fenugreek, Gram, Onion, Mustard and Tomato) and 10 different weeds (Corchorus Capsularis, Cynodondactylon, Chloris barbata, Amaranthaceae, Argemone mexicana, Carthamus oxyacantha, Capsella bursa Pastoris, Chenopodium Album, Dactyloctenium aegyptium and Convolvulus Ravens). Intel Real Sense LiDAR digital camera L515 and Canon digital SLR DIGICAM EOS 850 D 18-55IS STM cameras were mounted over the wheat crop in 10 × 10 square feet area of land and 3670 different weed images have been collected. The 2936 weed images were used for training and 734 images for testing and validation. The Efficient NetB7 and Inception V4 architectures have been used to train the model that has provided accuracy of 97% and 94% respectively. The Image classification using Inspection V4 was unsuccessful with less accurate results as compared to EfficientNet-B7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal 2 of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to achieve doubled agricultural productivity and increased income for small-scale food producers while ensuring sustainable food production systems by 2030. It also aspires to maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, promoting access to fair and equitable sharing of benefits. Various international conventions are already in force which directly or indirectly contribute to the realisation of this goal, UPOV, CBD, TRIPS, and ITPGFRA being the flagship ones. The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Rights Act in India is objectified towards recognising and protecting farmers. rights honouring their contribution to conserving, improving, and making available plant genetic resources for the new variety development. Drawing on the available literature, this article investigates the role that Plant Variety Protection & Farmers Right Act can play in realising this goal. The paper firstly sets the context and examines the relation between IPR, Food Security, and Globalisation. The article further explores the reasons for the recognition of Intellectual property to plant-related inventions and outlines the current levels of international and national protection. The researcher further undertakes to examine the interface between food security and the plant variety protection Act. At last, the paper sets out the conclusion and recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – China and India have made significant strides in transforming their agricultural sectors to cut hunger and poverty for the masses through improved agricultural productivity. Given limited land and shift of labor to non-agricultural sector, increasing productivity will continue to be central in agricultural growth in the twenty-first century. The purpose of this paper is to provide comparative analysis of the agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the two countries. It complements existing literature by examining the evolution and drivers of TFP at disaggregated sub-national level. Richer data allows a deeper understanding of the nature and drivers of TFP growth in the two countries. Design/methodology/approach – This paper applies different analytical framework to address different research questions using data since 1980. China study estimates a parametric output-based distance function using a translog stochastic frontier function. Productivity growth index and its multiple components are calculated using parameters derived from the parametric approach to identify the characteristics of technology such as structural bias. India study first applies data envelopment analysis to estimate the aggregate productivity growth index, technical change (TC), and efficiency change. Next productivity indexes by for traditional crops are estimated using growth accounting framework at state level. Finally, a panel regression links TFP on its determinants. Findings – Several common themes emerge from this comparative study. Faced with similar challenges of limited resources and growing demand, improving productivity is the only way to meet long-term food security. Agriculture sector has performed impressively with annual TFP growth beyond 2 percent in China and between 1 and 2 percent in India since the 1980s. The TFP growth is mainly propelled by technological advance but efficiency had been stagnant or even deteriorated. This study provides a granular picture of within country heterogeneity: fast growth in the North and Northeast part of China, South and East of India. Research limitations/implications – The study suggests some possible policy interventions to improve agricultural productivity, including investment in agricultural R & D to create advanced production technology, effective extension programs and supportive policies to increase efficiency, and diversification from staple crops for sector-wide growth. The India study suggests certain policies may not be contributing much to productivity growth in the long run due to a negative impact on environment. Further studies are needed to expand the productivity analysis to take into consideration of the negative externalities to the society. Data enhancement to account for quality-adjusted inputs could improve the estimation of productivity growth. Originality/value – Each country study reveals certain prospects of the agricultural sector and production technology. China analysis statistically confirms the existence of technical inefficiency and technology progress, suggests the translog form is appropriate to capture the production technology and satisfies conditions stipulated in theoretical models. The results indicate TC does not influence the contribution of output or input to the production process. India study pinpoints the lagging productivity growth of traditional crops, which still derives growth from input expansion. Although different states benefited from different crops, sector-wide productivity gain is primarily the result of diversification to high-value crops and livestock products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese and Indian aggregate productivity growth has been significantly different over the last 30 years. This paper studies the role of structural transformation in accounting for the aggregate productivity growth gap between two economies. We calibrate a neoclassical model of structural transformation for China and India. The model implies that higher productivity growth in China's manufacturing and agriculture accounts for most of the aggregate productivity growth gap between the two countries. According to the development strategy of China's government, China would start a new phase of structural transformation whereby employment is moving from manufacturing to services. Since the productivity growth gap in services is pretty small between China and India, if China wants to remain superior in relative productivity, it should improve the productivity growth rate of services. In contrast, the relative performance in India hinges on closing its productivity gap in agriculture and manufacturing relative to China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes an assessment of the impact of new economic reforms on regional growth of agricultural sector in Indian economy by analysing cropping pattern for the post reform period 1991-2013. After the introduction of liberalisation, agriculture has been steadily changing. Its progress during the last twenty two years has been fairly encouraging and gradually gaining in strength of Maharashtra in the production of few cash crops. At the same time, the production of food grain and cereals has been declined in the recent past, which has put pressure on food inflation in Maharashtra since 2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture planning plays a significant growth and food security of an agro-based country like India. In this Review we present a comprehensive and critical survey on current challenges and methodologies applied for various image processing and Machine learning approaches on variety of crops in their productivity increase, considering the following measures: Early detection/recognition of crop diseases, diagnosing methods and crop selection method in yield prediction. This paper presents an overview of existing reported techniques useful in detection of diseases in variety of crops. Finally we identify the challenges and some opportunities for future developments in this area. [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]

The present paper discusses about the applications of protected cultivation for crop activities, and technology utilization in India. The crop production, management, plant propagation are applied at protected cultivation in sustainable agriculture. The advancement of technology is boosted in protected cultivation that transforms sustainable agriculture into modern agriculture. The various agricultural crops are practiced naturally after research progress in protected cultivation. The various sophisticated technologies like scientific farming, vertical farming, vertical farming with hydroponics, organic farming, micro-irrigation, organic fertigation, chemical fertigation, IPM, IDM, INM, farm machines & tools, aquaponic, micro green farming, in-situ crop preservation, azolla production and seed production are utilized in crop activity and academic & research. The modern technologies are constituted in protected cultivation that transforms modern agriculture into smart agriculture. It will promote land, water, waste land conservation. It would reform nutrient content of the soil, forbids soil erosion and soil pollution. It will provide employment opportunities, agricultural business, food security and rural development in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrigation is an important adaptation strategy to cope with climate change which reduces vulnerability to water stress and improves crop productivity to feed millions. There is evidence of crop yield stagnation in many developing countries, and irrigation efficiency is claimed to increase crop productivity. Therefore, this paper uses data envelopment analysis to evaluate the farmer's productivity through technical efficiency (TE), i.e., the relationship between resource inputs and outputs of 513 paddy farmers in Eastern India. The results show that the farms are, on average operating at 14% TE, leaving a considerable scope to improve up to 86% to reach the optimal level. A significant difference is observed between irrigated and rain-fed paddy farmers, such that10% of the irrigated farms achieved efficiency scores over 40% and only 2% of rain-fed farms achieved the same. The tobit and beta fit regression models are estimated to find out the factors that influence the TE. Both surface water and groundwater sources of irrigation are used as predictors, along with other socio-demographic factors. Access to surface water irrigation is identified to be a significant determinant of farm efficiency, however, surface water irrigation, such as canal irrigation, is accessible only to farmers living on plain land. Farmers living on highlands need to explore other sources of irrigation practices, such as drip and sprinkler, that can increase TE and farm productivity. Therefore, this paper calls for government intervention to provide extensive training and facilities for these micro-irrigation practices. • Data Envelopment analysis was estimated to derive the paddy efficiency among the tribal villages of eastern India. • The DEA estimates show that average Technical efficiency in the study region is much below the national average. • Irrigated farmers are more efficient than the rain-fed farmers. Surface irrigation is the dominate factor. • Rain-fed paddy cultivators' farm efficiency would improve by 6.5%, if they had irrigated. • Semi-mountainous regions with little access to surface irrigation must explore micro-irrigation practices such as drips and sprinklers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial influence of agriculture today is expanding in tandem with the economy of our nation and has become the large industry which plays a vital and crucial role for the uplifting of our nation. Keeping track of plant diseases caused by the assistance of experts could be expensive when it comes to the agricultural area, so there is a need for a system capable of automatically identifying since it could revolutionize the monitoring of vast fields of crops and allow for the plant's treatment of leaves as soon as possible after disease detection. There are numerous illnesses that harm various plants/crops and hamper their growth and agricultural fields. So there is a need to identify the disease and tell how to recover from it. So there is a need to develop such an application which could help in the prediction of plant/crops disease and how to recover from the same. In many nations, including India, agriculture is a substantial industry. Given that a massive portion of the Indian financial system depends on agricultural production, it is crucial to give the issue of food production a careful study. The agricultural industry gave immense importance to the nomenclature and acknowledgment of crop infection on both technical and financial level. While monitoring the plant diseases which are caused in the agricultural fields with the help of experts could be very expensive in the long run so a technique or system that can recognize diseases automatically is required because it could change the way the vast fields of crops are monitored, and a perfect automated system could be built which could easily detect the plant diseases. It has become a necessity to develop an automated system which could easily detect the plant diseases beforehand and could easily help in overcoming them by suggesting the measures and techniques to overcome them. So that agricultural productivity could be increased, and agricultural production could be done properly with vast production of good quality crops which in turn help in growth of our nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]