The prospects and implications for continued and possibly rapid extension of the broader effort at greenhouse gas mitigation and the specific effort of carbon markets in India are assessed along four axes: (i) the global experience of mitigation and carbon markets in agriculture in the global North, who are expected to be leaders in such actions; (ii) the theoretical prospects of carbon markets and carbon offsets in agriculture, with special reference to welfare and distributional aspects; (iii) the key initiatives in GHG mitigation and carbon trading related to Indian agriculture; and (iv) considerations of the priority to be assigned to both mitigation and carbon trading in Indian agriculture both in the international and intra-national contexts.
A leading agriculture scientist, humanist, and institution builder, M S Swaminathan passed away on 28 September 2023. The best way to honour him and his rich legacy is by continuing his unfinished mission of eradicating malnutrition with more determination and vigour.
Using the decennial All-India Debt and Investment Survey, this paper examines the spatial and temporal trends of private fixed capital expenditure among rural households. It also examines the impact of public investment and input subsidy on private agricultural investment. It notes that there has been a substantial increase in the spending fixed capital with significant interstate variations. An econometric analysis reveals significantly positive impact of public investment in agriculture and irrigation on private agricultural investment.
This paper deals with the trends in wheat production and exports. It explains the consequences of decreasing productivity and lower procurement. However, tapping the full potential can ensure larger wheat exports and motivate higher production which can help in doubling farmers’ income. But it can have a negative impact on food inflation.
Indian Agriculture Towards 2030: Pathways for Enhancing Farmers’ Income, Nutritional Security and Sustainable Food and Farm Systemsedited by Ramesh Chand, Pramod Joshi and Shyam Khadka, Delhi: Springer, 2022; pp 311, Open Access.
While the impact of groundwater irrigation on the productivity of crops and other parameters has been well-documented in India, not many studies are available highlighting its role in the value of agricultural output using district-level data. This paper attempts to find out the impact of groundwater irrigation on VAO using cross-sectional data for 189 Indian districts covering three time points: 1990–93, 2003–06, and 2017–20. Both descriptive and regression analyses have been used in this paper. The descriptive analysis shows that VAO per hectare is significantly higher for those districts having a high level of groundwater coverage (>50%) than the districts having less (<30%) groundwater irrigation. The multivariate regression analysis carried out by using yield augmenting and infrastructure variables shows that the role of groundwater irrigation in impacting VAO has significantly and consistently increased over time.
Agriculture electricity supply has been the Achilles heel in the context of electricity policy and subsidy in India. The study summarises all the electricity consumption methods and numbers in the major agricultural states by state electricity regulatory commissions and researchers. Clear disparities in electricity consumption can be seen for some states and crops in the numbers summarised. It highlights the issues with the current methodologies and proposes to develop better methods for estimation of energy consumption in agriculture.
The unit-level data of the recently released Time Use Survey 2019 was used to analyse the participation and contribution of men and women engaged in agriculture and allied sectors for states and union territories of India. The pattern of daily time use in other activities like unpaid work, leisure, and self-care have also been presented. There is a need to share the unpaid domestic and care work for enhanced participation and contribution of women in agriculture.
Smallholders suffer from low marketable surplus, poor holding capacity, low bargaining power and huge transaction cost in marketing their produce. Agricultural markets in India have been subject to reform processes with the stated intention of improving market access and participation for the primary producers. The three legislations introduced in 2020 are the latest in that direction. This article critically analyses market reforms in India with respect to smallholders’ bargaining position. It also provides insights on the ways and means to improve market participation and the bargaining position of smallholders.
