Irrigation tanks formed the lifeline of village economy. The Government of Karnataka amended its Irrigation Act in 1965 and Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) was brought under the domain of Cooperative Act and Water Users Cooperatives were formed to managed and operate the tanks. The present study was undertaken to assess the transaction cost in irrigation tank management in central dry zone of Karnataka. Two tanks Bukkarayanakere (farmers managed) and Ayyanakere (Minor Irrigation Department managed) were considered for the study. The results revealed that, total transaction cost incurred was high in Minor Irrigation Department managed tank or defunct water users association (` 1,06,085 per year) than farmers managed tank or active water users association (` 61,480 per year). This is because of free riding problem that prevailed in the Minor Irrigation Department managed tank command. Educating the farmers regarding the benefits of collective action is necessary to reduce the transaction cost.

The study was conducted on primary data, collected from a sample of 60 banana growers, consisted of 26 (43%), 25 (42%) and 9 (15%) marginal & small, semi-medium and medium & large category. The data were collected from the sample growers with the help of specifically prepared pre-tested schedules through Survey Method by interviewing them, selected through Multi-Stage Sampling Technique from a cluster of 3 villages of Nawgachhia block of Bhagalpur district. The growers in general (76.67%) were found selling banana in ‘local market’. The semi-medium and medium & large category (36.0 and 56.0 per cent) growers were also found selling it to ‘distant markets’. The ‘contract sale’ was pre-dominantly prevailed as ‘mode of sale’ in the area. The ‘cash sale’ as-well-as ‘credit sale’ was prevailing in the area. The marginal & small category growers sold banana to the pre-harvest contractors.

The study attempts to estimate the profitability of crops cultivated in Cauvery river basin of Karnataka. The study uses primary data pertaining to Mandya district, which is the major beneficiary of the Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) Project of Cauvery basin for irrigation purpose. For this study, 120 farm households were selected through appropriate sampling procedure. The data thus collected were processed using statistical tools including descriptive analytical tools, Cobb-Douglas Production Function and Garrett ranking method. The results revealed that, in the study area, sugarcane was the most profitable crop with a mean net returns of ` 1,47,288 per ha and a benefit-cost ratio of 2.02. The corresponding figures for paddy were ` 31,342 per ha and 1.52, while for ragi, they were ` 3,159 per ha and 1.12. Over the last decade, maize, banana, sesamum and coconut have gained importance as indicated by their significant positive high compound annual growth rates in cropped area, which is a desirable change replacing the age-old monotonous sugarcane-paddy cropping system. Labour scarcity and high wage rate were the serious problems faced by the sample respondents in crop production. Amongst the irrigation related problems, untimely and inadequate release of water from the dam for irrigation purposes and sedimentation in canals and tanks were the most serious ones, which needs the attention of the policy makers on priority basis, in order to have a sustainable crop production system in the region.

Statistical tools for forecasting purpose started using smooth exponential methods in 1950s. These methods were modified depending upon the trend followed in the data sets, based upon the evaluation purpose. From simple additive to multiplicative effects and then automated functions were used to evaluate the complexity in data for forecasting purpose. In this review we summarized the various statistical methods used for forecasting purposes starting from the basic function to complex function in order to evaluate various data sets viz-a-viz time series data of different components, like agricultural products, business outcomes, and stock market exchange rates. In order to evaluate the data sets for forecasting purpose to accuracy or near accuracy, various statistical methods will give different predictions depending up on the range of data sets whether daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, number of observations in the data set, seasonality in data sets, number of missing observation in data sets, and more importantly the variation in data sets to interpret the results.

There is a growing discontentment among Indian cotton farmers because of declining profitability. Increase in production costs, yield stagnation and volatile output prices have affected the net incomes adversely. In this study we analysed cost of cotton cultivation to elucidate reasons for cost escalation. Cost of cultivation data obtained from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics for the period 2000-01 to 2014-15 was used for the analysis. It was found that an increase in human labour wage rates was the major factor that contributed to cost escalation. Fertilizers were another factor that contributed to cost escalation. Selective mechanization for curtailing human labour consumption and judicious use of fertilizers are options to lower the cost of cotton cultivation.

The present paper studied the economics of large cardamom cultivation using primary data collected from a sample of 80 large cardamom growers of Zunheboto district. It has been found that investment in large cardamom is a profitable business. Total cost of cultivation for large cardamom was ` 83188.29/ha and net farm income was ` 251559.65/ha. The values of economic parameters, viz, NPV, BCR, IRR and PBP was worked out to be ` 98129.31/ha, 1.66(over total cost), 35 per cent and 4.3 years respectively, thus, confirmed the economic viability and certainty of investment in large cardamom plantation. Non availability of planting materials on time was the major constraint reported in the study area. The study has emphasized on the need of participatory quality planting material production at village level which will facilitate in effective supply of seedlings at proper time.

Exploiting the potential of current technologies is more critical to increase farm production than that of waiting for a new technological breakthrough. In reality, higher efficiency can often translate into higher productivity which further may lead to sustainability at the farm levels. Taking this into consideration, the present study was conducted in Saurashtara region of Gujarat state during 2016-17 to determine technical efficiency levels of randomly selected farmers practicing groundnut-pigeonpea relay cropping vis-à-vis other cropping systems. The analysis was conducted using stochastic frontier production function (SFPF) approach. The findings revealed that the mean technical efficiency of relay cropping farmers (89 %) was higher than that of sole pigeonpea farmers (87.18 %) and sole groundnut farmers (74.52 %). The maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) revealed positively significant effect of human labour (1.103) and machine power (0.109) and fertilizer (0.276) on farm output among relay cropping farmers. In fact, the variance ratios viz. σ2 (0.027), γ (0.838) and λ (2.263) were found to be significant indicating that the variations in the farm output were more due to the existence of technical inefficiency levels. In addition, the average frontier yield to be bridged was only 0.89 qtl/ha under relay cropping which was much lesser than the other two cropping systems. Among the factors influencing the technical efficiency of relay cropping farmers, experience (0.37); education (0.10); institutional support (0.12) and imput market access (0.08) were found to be both positive and significant.

An effort has been made in this study to measure the impact of public policies on women health in Indian. This Paper has been divided into three parts: first part of the study shows the trend and pattern of the public policies on women health from 2004 to 2015. Secondly, this paper explored the effectiveness of the health policies and in order to find out the effectiveness, we have used Anova with post hoc test. Lastly, we have used regression analysis to find out the impact of public policies on women health in India.

The present research paper has examined the process of agricultural infrastructure, climate change and agricultural efficiency in Uttar Pradesh at district as well as regional level from 2004-05 to 2015-16. Agricultural Infrastructure Indices (AII) have been estimated through Principal Component Analysis (PCA) by taking eight variables related to agricultural infrastructure to identify the disparities within the district as well as regional level. Agricultural Efficiency Index (AEI) has also been estimated to identify the trends of agricultural efficiency and panel data regression analysis was employed to analyze the determinants of agricultural efficiency index at disaggregate level of Uttar Pradesh. The values of agricultural infrastructure index (AII) confirmed that rural infrastructure has been enhanced in all the districts and regions from 2004-05 to 2015-16 with some fluctuations. Moreover, the results of agricultural efficiency revealed that the pattern of efficiency at district and regional level has undergone a significant shift towards a higher level during the study period. However, this shift was not uniformly distributed across the districts/regions. The regional level result of UP indicated that WUP recorded highest AEI and AII followed by CUP, EUP and Bundelkhand respectively. The results of Random Effect Model confirmed that agriculture infrastructure index (AII); gross sown area per tractor, percentage of loan for agriculture and rainfall variability have been found the significant determinants of agriculture efficiency, while per hectare fertilizer, maximum temperature and minimum temperature have established insignificant relationship with agricultural efficiency. This paper suggests policy support in terms of enhanced agriculture infrastructure, mitigation of vulnerable climatic factors, appropriate use of agriculture inputs and suitable technology to achieve higher degree of agricultural efficiency and also generate higher income for farmers. Furthermore, the use of technological inventions by public--private participation in the cultivation methods of various crops needs to be encouraged for achieving agriculture efficiency at disaggregate level.

Cotton accounts for the maximum share of pesticide consumption. Over the past decade, the perplexities in pest management intensified more insect species developing resistance to insecticides which was a consequence of excessive use of insecticides on the crop. For the study, multistage sampling procedure was adopted to select the respondents. Twenty cotton farmers from each village were post-stratified into small, medium and large farmers proportionately making a total sample of 120. The total costs as well as returns incurred were highest for large farmers as compared to medium and small farmers, but pesticides cost was more in case of small farmers. Around 54 farmers (45%) had spent ` 4500 to ` 5500 per ha for pesticide application. Most of the farmers do not know how to read literature on pesticide containers. It was astonishing to notice that 73.33 per cent of the farmers were exposed to or not using protective masks/coverings during pesticide application and farmers were found careless in handling pesticides.

Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) – the age-long rural institutions were set up mainly focussing credit aspects of farming community. However, with the passage of time PACS have undergone many changes in terms of their modus operandi as well as objectives. Of late they have been mobilizing financial resources from rural households in the form of savings etc. Additionally, they are now promoting Self-Help-Groups (SHGs), particularly women-groups who were untouched earlier. In this paper, attempt is being made to examine performance of PACS in terms of its coverage, inclusion, economic efficiency, social responsibility and prudence in financial management. The study is based on secondary data relating to the period 2007-08 to 2016-17 referring to randomly selected seven PACS of Nadia district, West Bengal. Finally the authors point out to the weaknesses and pitfalls of societies and conclude with some suggestions for strengthening PACS. It has been observed that PACS have broadened their base in terms membership growth and quantum of loan-disbursement. However, they have showed poor performance in recovery and decelerating NPA growth. The reasons for growths in Overdue and NPA need critical observations at ground level. An exhaustive evaluation is needed whether overdue or NPA are owing to growth of wilful or non-wilful defaulters.

The present study was conducted to analyze the rice cultivation scenario in West Bengal from 1994-95 to 2015-16. The study was based on secondary data collected from various sources. Study showed that production, yield, area under high yielding variety (HYV) and area under irrigation had a positive and significant growth rate, whereas area had negative and significant growth rate in overall period i.e., period III (1994-16). North 24 parganas, Cooch behar, Jalpaiguri showed highest growth rate in terms of area, production and yield respectively in period III. Among the traditional rice growing districts Midnapore showed higher growth rate in terms of production and yield than Bardhaman in period III. Midnapore and Bardhaman were among the top three districts in terms of area and production. Variable like rainfall (R) had negative and significant effect in growth of area and production showing unpredictability of monsoon caused the farmers to show reluctance in rice cultivation. Other variable like literacy rate (LR) and fertilizer consumption (FC) had positive and significant effect on growth rate of yield and gross irrigated area (GIA) in terms of growth of area under rice cultivation.

Does Bank Rate, Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) affect the bank credit? This question always comes in the mind of researchers, economist, academicians, and policymakers and to get the answer to it, many research activities and projects are carried out by them. This study is also on the same line. The study intends to examine the impact of monetary policy on bank credit since reforms period. The study uses multiple regression models to test the selected banking variables by using the time series data collected from RBI. The study found that there is an inverse relationship between CRR and bank credit, SLR and bank credit but there is no association between bank rate by RBI and bank credit by the scheduled commercial banks in India since reforms period.

The online retail market in India is relatively new and still adapting to the global business environment. Also, conventional tax regime was neither able to cover all e-commerce transactions nor give it a proper space to flourish. The launch of Goods and Services Tax (GST) changed the taxation scenario in India from a very complex tax structure comprising of around 500 different kinds of taxes to a simpler tax regime with just 3 broad tax categories while having both positive and negative impacts on industries operating in organized and unorganized manner. The objective of this exploratory, qualitative, and non-empirical paper is to explore and present the consequences of the introduction of GST on the Indian Economy with special reference to the online retail industry in India. Researchers reviewed the reports of various departments of Government of India (such as the Central Board of Excise and Customs); the GST Council reports up to 30th meeting held on September 28th 2018; Honorable Finance Minister’s speech on GST; and interviews of government officials. This paper may provide useful insights to the online retailers, suppliers and most importantly, the common buyers in understanding the changes brought by GST and help the GST Council in making further amendments in the Act.

Small scale industries has been considered as device of economic growth and development in many developing countries and this constitute the backbone of an economy in maintaining a significant growth and in generating employment opportunities. The Government of India declared that ` 500 and ` 1000 notes will be no longer legal tender from midnight, 8th November 2016. This move is expected to cleanse the formal economic system, discard black money and counterfeit notes. The small business units who largely depend on Cash related transaction on daily basis witnessed more disturbances. Therefore an attempt has been made to identify the problems faced by the small business units and give suggestions to improve the working of small business units which were affected by demonetization in Coimbatore city. The study revealed that most of the respondents were unhappy about the implementation of demonetization because they faced loss due to cash crunch and had a great impact on their small business activities and their standard of living.

Food security is recognized as a basic human right and in the ‘Sustainable Development Summit’ of 2015, achieving ‘Zero Hunger’ by 2030 has been set as one of the 17 sustainable development goals. The incidence of hunger is very much region or context-specific. India remains at ‘serious’ category in Global Hunger Index Severity Scale, 2017. Food accessibility being the most important pillar of food security, in this paper we attempt to assess the incidence, depth and severity of food inaccessibility at the household level in three villages of the district of Birbhum, West Bengal. The study, based on primary data covering 257 households, also intends to examine food accessibility of the households classified by their primary source of income. We have taken monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) on food as the indicator of food accessibility. The MPCE on food as per the minimum food basket set by the Planning Commission in 2014 and the mean MPCE on food for rural West Bengal as determined by the NSSO in 2011 are considered as two threshold levels. The study reveals the alarming reality that a significant percentage of households with zero operational land and marginal farmers do not have food accessibility. An inquiry into the sources of income of the households reveals that there exists (i) a negative relation between wage income and food accessibility, (ii) an inverse relation between income generated from farm activity and food accessibility and (iii) a positive relation between income from regular service, trade, business and food accessibility.

The paper examines the nature and extent of crop diversification, crop specialization and inter-district diversity in cropping pattern in the most advanced agricultural state Punjab during the period of 2000-01 to 2014-15. The study has used the index of crop diversification, location quotient, crop versatility and district versatility index for analysis. The study has revealed that both wheat and rice crop is grown by all the districts, so none of the district was found to be very highly specialised or very less specialised than state. However, for cotton and maize, four districts acquired specialization. The district versatility results shows that Hoshiarpur is the more versatile district and Patiala is less versatile district in 2014-15. The insights from the paper suggests that the government should enhance region-specific diversification on the basis of district specialization along with infrastructure and assured marketing of new crops through contract farming and supermarkets procurement.

The study was undertaken in North of Bengaluru to Assess the Repayment performance and factors affecting repayment capacity of agriculture credit by farm households across rural urban interface. The required primary data was collected from randomly selected 50 farmers each under rural, peri-urban and urban transacts. The results revealed that the farmers availed more credit from formal sources compared to informal sources across all transacts. Repayment was more in urban areas (50.36 %) compared to peri-urban (43.05 %) and rural (34.52 %) areas. The farmers were categorized based on the extent of repayment across rural urban interface and the results indicated that, 42 per cent of rural farmers, 40 per cent of peri urban and 34 per cent of urban farmers fall under the category of 75 to 100 per cent repayment. Low price, crop loss and higher household expenditure occupied the major reasons for indebtedness of farm households in all the three transacts. Multiple regression analysis was carried out to know the factors affecting repayment capacity and regression results showed that Amount borrowed and interest rate were the factors which significantly affected the repayment capacity of farm households.

Jute is an eco-friendly, cheap and excellent fibre, traditionally used for sacking and hessian. India produces 80% of jute of total global demand. Owing to environment friendly properties, this ‘golden fiber’ has been used as a safe material for packing and transport. However, dilution of JPM act coupled with competition from synthetic/ man-made fibres, demand of jute for traditional usages i.e. sacking and hessian has decreased over past five years. Under such circumstances, application of jute for diversified product has become necessary for survival of around 44 lakhs direct and indirectly related workers (covering farmers and mill workers) associated with the jute industry. Jute diversified products like shopping bags, wall hangings, floor covering, non-ovens, geo-textiles, composites etc has opened up a new realm beyond traditional application of jute. Export of jute diversified products has increased from INR 363.593 to 590.215 corers during 2012-13 to 2016-17. Present status paper reports various type of jute diversified products along with their market scope, performance and opportunity across the world.

The present investigation was conducted in the Belagavi district of Karnataka to compare the economics of milk production with member and non-members of Women Dairy Self-Help Groups (WDSHGs). The primary data was collected from 90 members and 90 non-members of households from two seasons i.e. rainy and summer in the year 2015-16. The gross cost for maintaining local cow, crossbred cow and buffalo was found to be ` 91.75, ` 146.22 and ` 128.29 for member is more as against ` 88.11 for local cow, ` 142.36 for crossbred cow and ` 124.67 for buffalo in case of non-members. The cost per litre of milk of local cow (` 28.15), crossbred cow (` 20.73) and buffalo (` 26.82) was found to be slightly less for members in comparison to non-members ` 28.91 for local cow, ` 21.10 for crossbred cow and ` 27.08 for buffalo. The net returns per liter of milk was found to be ` -1.74 for local cow, ` 3.76 for crossbred cow and ` 2.45 for buffalo in members were slightly higher as compared to ` -2.57 for local cow, ` 3.18 for crossbred cow and ` 2.02 for buffalo in non-members. Here, net return per liter of milk for local cow is negative because, less productivity of local cow overall the net returns from dairy farming is higher for members as compared to non-members.

The study is formulated to assess the extent of yield gap at different adoption levels and identify the constraints responsible for the existing yield gap in chickpea production technology of Madhya Pradesh. The study was carried out in the Khargone district with 60 sample farmers form 5 villages in the state. The study reveals that adoption of improved production technology has lagged far behind. The chickpea productivity could be increased in the area through the judicious use of improved inputs and practices for that purpose. On the other hand, the proper use of improved technology and improved practices of chickpea production need to be demonstrated. Hence, farmers should given priority to use their resources on the basis of economic viability with proper management of their farm so that emphasis should be given on resources availability and their economic use. Economic study to be conducted suggests optimal cropping pattern and practices including recommendations for varying quantities of fertilizer applications under varying price and output situations.

Indian extension system is said to be pluralistic in nature with number of agencies involved in delivery of extension services. There are public, private and third sector actors along with information communication technology (ICT) based initiatives proactively involved in information and technology dissemination in agriculture and allied sectors. Some of the actors are involved in the provision of support services also. It has brought added responsibility to public extension like quality assurance along with provision of technical backstopping, and ensuring coordination between different actors in pluralistic extension system. This article tries to reflect on the imperatives for and major actors of pluralistic extension system in India as well as its implications.

This paper aims to analyze the determinants of the choice probability of millet consumption and the demand for major millets at household level in India. For this, we used consumer expenditure survey data collected by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) for the years 2004-05 and 2011-12. Heckman sample selection model was used to estimate the functional relationship between household level characters and millet consumption as zero expenditure is encountered for many of the households in the data set. The analysis revealed that the prices of millets and other food commodities had statistically significant effect on both millet consumption probability and the quantity demanded of millets while per capita income was not an important determinant. It is confirmed that the millets continue to be treated as inferior goods in India. Besides, age of household head has a positive relationship with the millet consumption, whereas larger household size and higher educational level decreased the probability of millet consumption and quantity demanded.

The capital investment and land-use pattern in Indian agriculture has traditionally promoted cereal-based cropping systems. However, diversification towards more productive and profitable crops like grape and other higher returns crops has become the new milestone to be achieved in Indian agriculture. A shift in area towards horticulture crops as a more viable and attractive alternative is a part of such diversification drive. In the present study production and financial feasibility of grape cultivation was done using primary data collected pertaining to Vijayapur district of Karnataka. The results of study revealed an annual establishment cost of ` 1,59,889/ ha with a net returns of ` 3,43,987/ ha. The financial feasibility analysis revealed that the investment in grape orchards can be recovered within five years. The net present values (NPV) were positive and high indicating worthiness of investment in grape business. The estimated B.C. ratio (1.42) was also revealed the profitableness of grape enterprise. The internal rate of return (IRR) was found to be (34.10%) found to be much higher than the cost of capital (12.50%), indicating grape cultivation as a highly profitable enterprise.

Bundelkhand region of central India, a major drought affected area of the country is associated to high level of rural to urban migration. The present study was conducted to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of the migrants and to examine the key factors triggering migration decision of agriculture practicing households. The region was facing drought for the fourth consecutive period which had left the population, mainly dependent on agricultural income, out of option than migration. The analysis of socio-economic profile of migrants showed that majority of the migrants were between the age group of 20-39 (70.1%) and the education level was secondary (54.8%). The population of female migrants was comparatively low, as many of them followed their family to the migrating place after marriage. Majority of the migrants (81.73%) were engaged in unskilled manual labour activities like construction works in destination cities. The various factors identified triggering migration decision were associated to livelihood security, climatic, agricultural, institutional and socio-cultural factors.

Cost of cultivation is an important factor affecting the profitability of agriculture in West Bengal. We have considered here cost of production of six major crops, namely paddy, jute, mustard, potato, til and pulses. Cost of cultivation increased over the years for paddy, potato, jute, mustard, pulses and til. There occurred a decline in percentage of family labour cost (imputed) to total cost of cultivation. It reflects that family labourers are not interested in cultivation of these crops while being devoted to other means of economic livelihood and the cultivators depend more and more on casual labourers for cultivation of those crops. Percentages of fertilizers cost and rental value of owned land also registered increase during this period for these crops. The production cost and returns of different size of landholdings in different crops cultivation have been calculated based on field survey data in the backward region of Paschim Medinipur district. The farmers are getting relatively high net returns or profit from vegetables, mustard and potato cultivation and relatively low returns from paddy cultivation. Higher net income was the main driving force for shifting towards vegetables cultivation. Net return per unit of labour and unit cost of production has been compared with those of cereals and other crops. It was noted that most of the vegetables were more profitable than cereals and other crops.