Contents

The paper examines the production efficiency of agricultural system in four regions of India categorized as eastern, western, northern and southern regions using state level data for the period 2005-06 to 2013-14. Stochastic production frontier model using panel data, as proposed by Battese and Coelli (1995), has been used for estimating the efficiency variations taking an integrated effect model into consideration. State level mean efficiency estimates of regions ranges from 0.8824 to 0.3759 for 2005-06 to 2013-14. The statistically significant variables explaining inefficiencies in the agricultural production are total state road length per unit of area and share of agricultural NSDP to state NSDP. The major inputs were institutional credit, net irrigated area and consumption of both fertilizers and pesticides.

The paper has examined the importance of rural non-farm and farm sector in meeting the consumption expenditure and the nutritional security of the small and marginal farmers. The study has analyzed the factors affecting the income of the diversification. The role of small farms is well recognized in the contribution towards total food grain production and poverty reduction. The study revealed that the contribution of marginal and small farmers to the total output is higher when compared to their share in the total land holdings. The contribution of small and marginal farmers to output ranges from 19 percent in Punjab to 86 per cent in West Bengal and it indicates the significant regional variations in their contribution to output. The farm level study conducted in Raichur district of Karnataka clearly indicates that income from the horizontal diversification is unable to meet the monthly expenditure of the household. The medium farmers and the income from crop enterprise are enough to meet the monthly household consumption expenditure. All the categories of the farmers were nutritionally better off and were consuming more than the recommended level with regard to milk, vegetables and fruits through diversified farming. Further, the availability of irrigation, farm mechanization, farm size and the experience of the farmers have been identified as the important factors influencing the diversified farming income. Thus, this study suggested that giving importance to both farm and non-farm sector will be the best option to double the income of the farmers particularly small and marginal farmers.

Over the years, there has been an arising worry about the farm labour accessibility which has been diminishing as a result of occupational changes, peoples attitude, Government policies and reforms, making it crucial to explore into the dynamics of the scarcity of agricultural labour and the reasons contributing to this. A study was undertaken considering the status of labour scarcity in agricultural economy with special reference to North Eastern Karnataka. A stratified sampling procedure was adopted to select the sample respondents. A total of 180 farmers were interviewed for the study. It was found that the labour demand exceeded supply for almost seven months and reached its peak during the sowing and weeding operations in both rabi and kharif seasons. According to the sample respondents, migration of labourers to the nearby villages for higher wages was the most serious problem leading to labour scarcity.

The growth of power looms had begun during the 1960s and year after year there has been a tremendous growth in the number of power looms. As a result, presently there are more than 22.69 lakhs power looms in the country (3rd census, GOI, 2008). And Karnataka is the fifth state with respect to the number of registered power looms (89,900), offering employment to 2, 04,725persons (www.indianstat.com, 2014-15). The study was conducted in Tumkur district of Karnataka with a total sample size of 60 respondents from three different taluks of Tumkur District. The result of the study revealed that there is a variation in man days used in saree production. The man days depended on the type and design of the saree produced in Power loom (Resham Saree: 0.4 MD, LT (Low twist yarn) Saree: 0.30 MD, Cotton Silk saree: 0.40MD) and the weft used for LT type saree was very less when compared to Resham and cotton silk saree. The total cost of production of Resham saree was high (`401.56) compared to LT and Cotton silk sarees (` 224.69 and ` 395.70). This is because of the differences in design and colour combination of the sarees. The net returns obtained from Resham saree was ` 123.44 with the B:C ratio of 1.30, which means that if you invest one rupee in a power loom , Resham silk saree production can be obtained in ` 1.30.

An economic analysis of cut flower marketing was taken up in Hosur block of Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu. Four channels were identified for the marketing of the cut flowers in the study region namely two commission agent channels, one a wholesaler channel and another a retailer channel. The price spread analysis by the sum of average gross margin method revealed that marketing channel IV namely the retailer channel was the efficient marketing channel because of better pricing mechanism, lesser price spread and better regulation that is prevalent in this channel. Marketing efficiency was estimated by Shepherd method and Acharya and Agarwal method. In this analysis also, marketing Channel- IV was found to be the most efficient marketing channel for all the three flower crops. Further, SWOC analysis of cut flower production was carried out and the strength in cut flower production is the production of flowers throughout the year and the spread and prevalence of new high tech technologies. The weakness included poor air freight capacity and the lack of airport infrastructure of the region. Lot of opportunities for cut flower production exist with the development of Agri-export zone in the region. The challenges daunting the cut flower production are labour problems and price fluctuation of cut flowers. Marketing constraints were studied by Garrett ranking technique. Higher price fluctuation was an important marketing constraint and the lack of continuous supply of cut flowers was the most important problem of intermediaries. The policy advocacy to overcome higher price fluctuation is by adopting the Action market forecast of Bengaluru and by following forward trading.

Precision Farming is an old traditional farming in the modern way, which involves optimizing agricultural production by improving the precision of the existing agronomic management activities by implementing them at a subfield scale. Such an experimental implementation has been done in Karnataka as the project on precision farming in selected field crops. Hence, to analyze the economic benefits of precision farming in comparison with conventional farming the present study was undertaken. The study was conducted at Raichur district, Karnataka. The data were collected by personal interview method by the pretested schedule. The study results indicated that though the cost of cultivation was marginally higher (1.47 %) in precision farming than non-precision farming, the yield obtained under management practices of precision farming (38.03 q/ha) were much higher than (26.48 q/ha) conventional farming situations. Hence there was a net gain of ` 35,898.82/ha under the adoption of precision farming. Returns per rupee spent was 2.03. Considering its benefits there is a need to encourage and popularize this technology with the support of line departments, SAU’s and other extension agencies.

Per capita consumption of pulses over the years has come down to 30g/day in 2008 from 61g/day in 1951. The same trend is followed in North Eastern part of our country. Pulses are mainly grown in uplands in North Eastern Hill Region of India. Pulses are very important for achieving nutritional security and considering its importance the 68th UN General Assembly declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses (IYP). Depending on the size of the farm land and their resources, pulses are grown by the farmers. In 2013-14, NE India produced 209.3 thousand tonnes of pulses from an area of 252.8 thousand hectare with an average productivity of 828 Kg/ ha. The NE region of India is almost 82% deficit in pulse production against its requirements as per ICMR recommendation. The study revealed that during overall period (1972-73 to 2011-12), across all the states in North East Region, Manipur (28.3%) has registered the highest significant growth in production followed by Nagaland (11.9%) and Tripura (4%). From decomposition analysis of growth in North East, it was found that over the period (1972-73 to 2011-12) yield effect (48%) was more than area effect (23%) whereas in country level area effect (33.8%) was more than yield effect (28.3%). There is a need for concerted efforts from various Departments to divert the area under shifting cultivation to production of pulses and other crops following principles of conservation agriculture, which would ultimately help in conserving soil and improving health.

In India, fisheries is an economic activity contributing 17.07% of the total agricultural exports during the year 2016-17 with annual earnings of US$ 5.78 billion (` 37,870 crores). Frozen shrimp contributes maximum share of about 66% by value and 39% by quantity. The present study has examined the geographical penetration, composition and unit value realisation of frozen shrimp exports from India. It also estimates the competitiveness index, comparative advantage and market diversification of Indian frozen shrimp exports in the world exports market. India’s total fishery exports has risen from 0.3 million tons to 0.95 million tons during the period 1995-96 to 2015-16 with a compound growth rate of 6.46%. India has lost its market share in Japan but has gained in South East Asia and European Union market during the period 1995-96 to 2014-15. India’s frozen shrimp exports to major export destinations like Japan, USA and EU have been getting diversified over the period.

In the present study, efforts were made to assess the awareness level and its correlate with the selected variables among the farmers on World Trade Organization (WTO) issues with special reference to agriculture and also to ascertain the training needs. The study was carried out in the state of Maharashtra and multistage random sampling technique was used for the selection of the respondent farmers. The results revealed that the overall awareness level of farmers on WTO issues related to agriculture was very low. Farmers’ education, mass media exposure, social participation and extension contact were found to have positive and significant correlation with their awareness about WTO. Farmers were found to be unaware not only about the structure and functions of WTO, its origin and purpose etc. but also about the provisions under the Agreement on Agriculture and other Intellectual Property Related issues such as the system of plant variety protection in India in general and the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Rights Act, 2001 in particular. The present investigation concluded that farmers must be given training on every basic aspects of WTO.

This study, to analyse the effectiveness of training programmes conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, West Garo Hills, was conducted in six purposively selected villages under KVK West Garo Hills districts, with 120 sample size from the adopted villages selected by proportionate random sampling. Data collection from the selected respondents was made with the help of pre-tested structured schedule using personal interview method. The study reveals that majority of the respondents in KVK adopted villages had medium level of knowledge and adoption of improved rice cultivation practices with medium level of productivity, annual net income, self-confidence and materials possession. Majority of the respondents also perceived that KVK trainings had enhanced the social recognition of the farmers. The training effectiveness score reveals that effectiveness score for social recognition was the highest followed by materials possession, level of knowledge and skills, economic condition, extent of adoption, productivity and self-confidence respectively.

To study the comparative economics of contract and non-contract farming of potato in Gujarat state, a sample of 120 potato growers comprising 60 each from contract and non-contract were selected. The Cost Concept (CACP approach) was used to work out various costs and “t” test was used for testing their statistical significance. The results revealed that the cost of cultivation (Cost C2) was higher on contract farms (` 185435 per ha) when compared to the non-contract farms, (` 154930 per ha) due to higher cost of labor, manures, seeds and chemical fertilizers. The average production of potato was higher on contract farms (399.92 q/ha) than on the non-contract farms (303.83 q/ha). This might be due to the use of better variety, proper use of inputs and better production technology as specified by the contracting firm. The average price received by the farmers was higher on the contract farms (` 830.29 per quintal) when compared to the non-contract farms (` 808.17 per quintal). The net returns received over Cost C2 was higher on contract farms (` 146615 per ha) when compared to the non-contract farms (` 90620 per ha). The yield uncertainty ratio was lower on the contract farms (0.1806) than the non-contract farms (0.4588). Similarly, the price uncertainty ratio was lower on contract farms (0.0162) than the non-contract farms (0.1358). In nutshell, these results clearly revealed that the contract farming in potato was economically more profitable and less risky when compared to traditional non-contract farming.

The study confined to two major kharif crops i.e. paddy and soybean of central India. A multistage stratified simple random sampling method was used to select the districts, blocks, villages and farm households, and to assess the impact of NCU over NU with respect to yield, cost of NCU over NU, other fertilizers use, cost of pest & diseases control and weed management. They were analysed using paired t-test and the cost of cultivation and partial budgeting technique. The impact of NCU was found to be highly significant in paddy and soybean when compared with NU in terms of yield of main and value of main and by product, while yield of by product in case of paddy and soybean was found to be significant. The cost of NCU fertilizer had reduced by 10.25% when compared to NU fertilizer, while the cost of weed management, pest & diseases control and other fertilizers were found to have increased by 13.44, 12.82 and 4.44% respectively in the cultivation of paddy. In case of soybean, the cost of NCU over NU, other fertilizers, and weed management was found to be reduced by 9.14, 9.20 & 1.68 respectively. The total cost of ` 1140/acre was added under different sub-head due to the application of NCU in paddy and soybean with added and net return of ` 3959 & ` 2819 and ` 2545 & ` 1405 per acre along with benefit cost ratio of 3.47 and 2.23 in case of paddy and soybean, respectively.

The study was conducted for Indian tea based on secondary data pertaining from 1971 to 2016 with the objective to examine the production of bulk tea and value added tea, trends and growth of value added tea and its competitiveness in the world tea market. The data were analysed through tabular as well as quantitative analyses like CAGR, Balassa’s Revealed Comparative Advantage and Nominal Protection Coefficient. It was observed that production, export and growth of graded tea increased during the last two decades. Among the value added tea, the export of tea bags was found to increase and the growth of values was higher in the country. Production of tea in Kenya was more advantageous than India and Sri Lanka. South Indian tea had labour and cost advantages while tea produced in North India and Assam gained profit advantages for selling quality tea. Revealed Comparative Advantage indicated that India is still competent in the global tea market and tea is not an efficient export crop as the domestic prices were higher than the world prices. The study concludes that India should go more for graded and value added tea by reducing the costs of production to gain the competitive advantages.

An effort has been made in this study to examine the trends in area, production, productivity, costs, returns and profitability of sugarcane and to determine the factors which are contributing toward productivity of sugarcane in major sugar producing states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. It has been observed that area expansion has significantly contributed towards increased production of sugarcane but productivity has remained stagnant. Cost of cultivation of sugarcane also witnessed increasing trend and due to much higher use of inputs, it was found to be higher for Maharashtra than Uttar Pradesh. However growth of value of output has outpaced the growth of cost of cultivation and thus rising trend of profitability was observed and was higher for Uttar Pradesh as compared to that of Maharashtra. The study found the positive and significant contribution of human labour, machine, fertilizers, insecticides and size of plot towards productivity of sugarcane and thus efficient management of these inputs can certainly led to increasing the productivity of sugarcane in India.