Volume 66 Issue 2 June Contents

The present study was formulated to analyze the level of market integration in the major vegetable markets in Punjab. The study was undertaken on a macro framework based on data collected from secondary sources through employing different tests, namely Johansen co-integration test, Grangner causality test. The investigations of integration between sample markets indicated that in case of all of the vegetables the state markets are found to be well integrated among each other and also with the national market (New Delhi) with an exception in case of tomato where it was seen that there was not any integration found between Ludhiana and Jalandhar market which was due to communication problems and lack of market intelligence between those markets. Hence in order to continue the competitive condition of these markets there is need to strengthen the market intelligence and communication within markets so that a better platform could be placed for guiding the farmers in marketing their produce.

This study was conducted in 2020 to determine the profitability and productivity of organic turmeric production in the Surkhet district of Mid-western Nepal. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 60 farmers and two focus group discussions were held in four different communities. Turmeric is commonly utilized among Nepalese households in the preparation of curries and is considered one of Nepal’s top five major spice crops. Despite being one of the top five-spice crops, Nepal’s dependency on imported turmeric has been growing every year to meet domestic demand due to the gradual decline in domestic production. The simple descriptive and statistical tools including the Cobb-Douglas production function and benefit-cost analysis were used to analyze the result. The benefit-cost ratio was found to be 1.20, indicating that organic turmeric production was a low profitability sub-sector with a productivity of only 9.06 metric tons per hectare. The Cobb- Douglas production function showed that the cost on seed had a non-significant effect on gross returns and other costs like human labour cost, organic manure cost, ploughing cost, and other costs (agriculture equipment, thread, sack/doko, and rhizome treatment) were found statistically significant. Return to scale was calculated using the Cobb- Douglas production function and it was found to be 0.363, indicating that a 10% increase in the cost of production increases the rate of return by 3.63%, which is a diminishing rate of return. As a result, replacing human labour with agricultural machinery, lowering seed costs, and ensuring appropriate market prices are required to boost the productivity and profitability of organic turmeric production in the research area.

Indian Economy is an emerging economy, but it is still an agricultural economy because most people earn their livelihood from agriculture. The present study was carried out to determine the factors affecting cereals production in Rajasthan. This paper is based on secondary data and inputs such as seed, fertilizer, manure, human labor, irrigation, bullock labor, and plant protection collected over the years i.e.; from 2000-01 to 2015-16. The Cobb-Douglas production function was used to estimate elasticities of selected variables contributing to the production of cereals in Rajasthan state and assess the effects of seed, fertilizer, manure, human labor, irrigation, bullock labor, and plant protection measures on cereals production. The results from the study have shown that seed, fertilizer, and irrigation water were positively significant. At the same time, the variable corresponding to plant protection measures was significantly negative, affecting wheat production. The variables such as seed and fertilizer were found positive and significant while human labor measures significantly negatively affected barley. Only two variables, namely human labor and irrigation water, were found positively significant in the production of maize. In contrast, seed, bullock labor, and plant protection measures were found to be negatively non-significant contributing factors. The variables such as seed and fertilizer were found to have a significantly positive effect on bajra production. In contrast, bullock labor and plant protection measures were negatively non non-significant contributing factors.

The status of fresh mangoes in respect of its export from India was studied for the period from the year 2008-09 to 2019-20 concerning significant export destinations. Status was examined by estimating mean, compound growth rate (CGR), instability, and diversification. Ray method was used to estimate the instability and diversification status was examined with the help of the Simpson Index of Diversification. Compound Growth Rate (CGR) was estimated by employing the best fit, functional form to the export data. United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh Pr, United Kingdom, Nepal, and Saudi Arab were the major export destinations of fresh mangoes from India in terms of quantity and value during the study period. Average growth in this export sector was 0.97 and 1.79 percent w.r.t. quantity and value, respectively. High growth coupled with moderate instability was observed. A moderate level of instability was observed at an overall level. During the year 2008-09 to 2019-20, lots of variation was observed in the level of diversification.

India is one of the leading producers and consumers of vegetable oils in the world. The integration of ’India’s edible oils markets with international oil markets (Rotterdam market) is studied with the overall objective of establishing long-run relationship and direction of causality. Keeping in view of the quantum of arrivals, five major domestic wholesale markets and one international market each for groundnut, soybean, and sunflower were selected. Johansen’s cointegration test revealed the prevalence of long-run relationships across the markets. In the case of groundnut oil, Rotterdam market prices are influenced by only Delhi market, whereas all selected domestic markets influence the latter. The results of causality in soybean markets confirmed a unidirectional relationship between all the domestic markets with the international market except Jaipur market, which has a bidirectional relationship with the international market. Hyderabad and Vijayawada sunflower market prices influenced the international market. The suggested policy intervention is to strengthen market intelligence for farmers by establishing online market analysis and dissemination system. The development/strengthening of market infrastructure, including communication, transportation, and storage networks, is mandatory to fully integrate the markets.

Increased volatility in farm production and sustainability of crops is a growing concern issue, and state-level analysis cannot reflect a complete scenario of volatile production behavior of different crops so district level study is taken up in this article. The study has estimated instability and sustainability in three major crops in the last three decades at district levels in Haryana. It was observed that Gram crop area is declining in every district at a very rapid pace. Cotton and mustard have seen facing severe ups and downs throughout the study period. To meet the demand of food and nutritional security, sustainable production is required and selected crops yield sustainability. Udemand of food and nutritional security, sustainable production is required, and selected crops yield sustainability was estimated using several sustainability indices at the district level.

The present investigation undertook to study the extent of poverty in the tribal and non-tribal areas applying the FGT index. Results showed that overall poverty was higher in the tribal area as compared to non-tribal areas. Among farm sectors in the tribal and non-tribal area, the highest poverty in marginal farm households was followed by landless agricultural labors and small farm households. The overall poverty gap index revealed, on average, 11 percent and 4 percent of the poverty line cash transfer needed to lift each poor person out of poverty in tribal and non-tribal areas, respectively. The value of the squared poverty gap index showed poverty was less severe in non-tribal areas. The poverty line’s average expenditure gap shows poor of tribal areas were more flawed than the poor of non-tribal regions in Central Gujarat. Overall expenditure of poor households on food items constituted maximum share followed by non-food items, medical and education in the tribal and non-tribal area. In tribal regions, both poor and non-poor people were spending more on intoxicant and tobacco products than non-tribal areas. The government should give regular employment to inadequate household programs like MGNREGA. There is a dire need to make an awareness program to control the use of intoxicants and tobacco in general for both the area and particularly in tribal areas because they were spending more on these items.

In the present study, spatial compound growth rates were estimated to know the growth pattern and instability in the area, production, and productivity of sugarcane in major sugarcane growing states of India. A secondary time series data of major sugarcane producing states of India like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha for the period thirty years from 1990-91 to 2019-20 have been utilized for the present study. The compound growth rates were computed with the help of exponential function, and instability/variability has been computed by using techniques of co-efficient of variation and Cuddy Della-Valle Index method. Student’s t-test was applied to check the significant differences in area, production, and productivity trends using compound growth rates (CGR). CGR of sugarcane production was 1.13 per centpercent in India during the study period with a significant growth rate in area (1.12%) and yield (0.39%). The statistically significant instability in sugarcane production was high at 9.67 percent than area (7.20%) and yield (5.26%) in the study period. The state-wise compound growth rate of sugarcane production was positively significant in Madhya Pradesh (5.31%), Bihar (3.65%), Maharashtra (3.39%), Karnataka (1.42%), and Uttar Pradesh (1.36%). The highest negative growth rate was observed in Odisha (-5.45%) and Andhra Pradesh (-1.63%). The instability of sugarcane production was highest at 44.06 percent than area (36.66%) in Odisha and yield (14.80%) in Madhya Pradesh.

Cultivation of horticultural crops is the best alternative for Indian agriculture as a farmer can achieve a higher return by exporting the produce. So the topic has been selected to analyze the trend in export performance of horticultural crops of India and to identify the major destinations of India for exporting fruits and vegetables. Data was entirely based on secondary sources, and the major analytical techniques like CAGR and CV were used to achieve the study’s objective. The trend in export of fresh fruit and vegetables both by quantity and value shows that walnuts have negative growth rate. Fresh mangoes have shown a negative growth rate (-4.50%) in terms of quantity. In the case of export of processed fruits and vegetables by quantity, Cucumber and Gherkins (Prepared & Preserved) have shown a negative growth rate (-2.21%) along with mango pulp (-5.48%). ’India’s primary market for fresh fruit and vegetables is United Arab Emirates. For processed fruit and vegetables, the major market are USA, Netherland, Saudi Arabia, and China. To emerge as a major exporting nation, India needs to produce surplus by cultivating high-value horticultural crops, improving cultivation practices, pre and post harvest management, storage, etc.

The investigation aimed to find monetary benefits of Laser Land Levelling (LLL) compared to conventional land leveling (CLL) in Karnal and Sirsa district of Haryana. These two districts were selected purposively because these have the highest area under paddy-wheat and cotton-wheat cropping patterns, respectively. The equation of Aryal et al. (2014) was explicitly used to estimate incremental benefits from laser land leveling. Also, input use pattern of machine labor, seed, plant protection chemicals, human labor, yield, and irrigation was considered. In the paddy-wheat cropping pattern of Karnal district, the annual net benefits of using laser land levelling were estimated to be ` 11450.81. In contrast, per LLL operation, net benefits were estimated to be ` 34352. Similarly, on the same lines in the cotton-wheat cropping pattern of Sirsa district, the annual net benefits of LLL were estimated to be ` 7212.61. In contrast,per LLL operation, net benefits were estimated to be ` 28850. As far as the input use pattern is concerned, the study showed that machine labour and yield increased under LLL while in both districts. In contrast, all other inputs i.e., seed, fertilizer, human labor, plant protection, chemicals, irrigation, were reduced, showing resource conservation potential of LLL. Hence, the study recommended adopting this resource conservation technology and tapping its potential benefits so that farmers may get benefitted from this ultimate technology.

The study was undertaken with the aim to work out the economics of apple cultivation in Himachal Pradesh. The blocks namely Rohru, Chopal, Nankhari and Anni from Shimla and Kullu districts were selected randomly and a sample of 144 units were chosen from the selected areas. Analysis of the results indicated that on an average, initial cost per hundred plants was ` 48097 and establishment cost ranged between ` 41323 and ` 64,530 for 2 to 6 years plants. Maintenance cost per hundred fruit-bearing plants was observed to be ` 106109 between 12 to 16 years in the high hills during the year 2019-2020. The net revenue calculated as ` 1.73 lakh and output-input ratio implied that each rupee spent would yield a profit of ` 1.63 in the study area.

Global financial crisis of 2008 and the Covid 19 led slowdown have brought Keynesian fiscal stabilization policies back to the forefront of all academic debates. But what the world is experiencing should be treated as an exceptional situation that should not be used to advance the case to fine-tune the economy every time using discretionary fiscal measures. The pre-crisis broad macroeconomic consensus still holds, and stabilization should first be left to monetary policy. On the fiscal front government should rely more on rule-based inbuilt stabilizers for short-term management of cyclical fluctuations in case of demand shocks and long-run fiscal policy should focus more on growth and developing enabling factors to attract more investment. Fiscal stabilizers on the expenditure side should be strengthened to provide an adequate safety net to economically vulnerable sections of the society.

In this paper, we aim to look at the main problems which arose or aggravated in recent years, concerning the economic crisis, stagnation, inequalities, and globalisation, what we call ‘the terrible four’. These are partly old problems (and we trace them back in economic history), but they have become more profound in the last decades. Notwithstanding the fantasy of economists that has led to suggest the possibility to make use of new instruments of economic policy, some of them are politically constrained, which implies the impossibility for the Government to reach its economic policy targets. In fact, if the number of instruments is less than that of targets, the Government becomes a ‘lame duck’.

Front line demonstration is an appropriate means for demonstration as well as the transfer of improved agricultural innovation to the farming community. Krishi Vigyan Kendra Shajapur has conducted a front line demonstration in farmer’s field during 2013-14 to 2018-19, in all 45 demonstrations on the Green gram to transfer the latest technology among the farmers of Shajapur district. The result revealed that the highest green gram yield was obtained in demonstrated plot with an average of 7.98 qt/ha compared to 5.89 qt/ha in farmer’s practice. Higher average net return (` 33274/ha) was obtained in the demonstration plots compared to farmers’ practice plot (` 23003.66/ha). The average B:C ratio was calculated 3.39 in demonstrated plot compared to 2.77 in farmer’s plot. This can be attributed to improved technology as well as improved varieties. The yield level was considerably low under local practices because of considerable variation in the extent of adoption of recommended practices depending upon the amount of risk involved in terms of cost convenience, skill and knowledge about the concerned practices. The productivity was better over local practices under demonstration. Hence, Green gram production technology has a broad scope for increasing the area and production of Green gram.

A study was undertaken in Karimnagar and Warangal districts falling under the Godavari command area of Telangana to analyze the economics of irrigation among the farm households across surface water (SW), groundwater (GW) and conjunctive use (CU) regimes. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and natural resource economics tools. The farms under CU realized higher net returns per acre (` 11792) followed by GW farms (` 8229) and SW farms (` 7516). There was also an enhanced savings to the extent of ` 10900 per acre due to reduction in the expenditure on human labour, machine labour, marketing and irrigation cost under CU regime when compared to GW regime. The per annum volume of surface water used in the case of SW farms and CU farms was 263 acre inches and 182 acre inches, respectively. Volume of water used in case of CU is less when compared to SW regimes. Annual cost of irrigation water per acre was found to be highest in GW farms (` 6916) when compared to SW (` 1284) and CU (` 4063) farms. This study has shown the potential benefits of CU regime over SW and GW regime.

Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn), an important sub-tropical evergreen fruit crop belonging to family Sapindaceae, is believed to have originated in China, where it has been grown in Southern Guangdong state for thousands of years. It is highly specific to climatic requirements and probably due to this reason its cultivation is restricted to few countries in the world. In India, litchi was introduced in the 18th century through Burma, and from there, it spread to many countries. India and China account for 91 percent of the world litchi production. Litchi is one of the important fruit crop commercially grown in Assam. Due to its perishable nature and having very short shelf life, Supply Chain Management (SCM) plays a vital role. Though India is an agrarian economy the business faces various challenges in terms of infrastructure facilities. The present article is an attempt to explain the production, distribution and Supply chain management of Litchi in Sonitpur District of Assam. Most of the litchi growers belong to marginal and small category. Hence, the involvement of marginal farmers is more in Litchi plantation as compared to other category of farmers. Major share of produce traded through market intermediaries. The linear trend model was used to check the dynamicity of the area and production data of Litchi in India. Due to perishable in nature, the litchi farmers are suffering severely due to wastage of litchi throughout the intermittent steps in existing supply chain of litchi.

The real-time availability of weather information plays a crucial role in agricultural production, food security, and sustainable production (Haile 2005; Rathore 2013; Pandey and Singh, 2019). Thus, any slight aberration in obtaining key weather parameters by the farming community can significantly disrupt the supply chain besides jeopardizing the lives and livelihood of millions of farmers. It is well established that weather parameters influence agricultural operations farm production and productivity, while weather aberration is an important reasonor crop loss in India (Chattopadyaya et al. 2011; Rao et al. 2015; Das et al. 2018). Most of the farmers lack real-time weather-related information to make specific decisions on cropping. Further, the weather-related data for a particular crop seldom available on a single platform (Kumar et al. 2015) though the ICT is rooted firmly. It may be concluded that agriculture and its activities are mostly depend upon weather parameters. The GKMS may create an effort to help the farming community to improve its decision-making. Farmers also adopt GKMS as a tool that may help them decide regarding farming activity. This weather based agromet advisory may also help the farming community to increase the yield as well as for the reducing the cost of cultivation of crops.

Vegetables are part and parcel of the daily healthy human diet. There will always be a demand for the vegetables in the market; the supply side has to keep up with the demand. With this regard, the study was carried out in Phek district, Nagaland, where the production and marketing of vegetables are well recognized. Three primary vegetables, cabbage, beans, and potato, were selected for the study from twelve villages from the sample population of 300 farmers in 2016-2017. The study was carried out to find out the marketable, marketed surplus, and the price spread in the marketing of the selected vegetables. Three marketing channels were observed, where Channel I (Farmer to consumer) played a significant role in terms of net returns received by farmers, lower cost, and non-existence of price gap. The result shows that the production, marketable surplus, and marketed surplus of cabbage was found to higher than beans and potato. To enhance and boost up production and marketed surplus, it is recommended to prioritize Channel I, infrastructural development, and extension services.

Collectivization of primary producers, minimal and marginal into farmer’s producer organizations has emerged as one of the most successful ways to tackle the many challenges of agriculture. Most importantly, FPO improved the access of farmers towards investments, technology and inputs, and markets. This study was conducted in the Kannauj district of Uttar Pradesh. Total seven FPOs were functioning in Kannauj district. Out of seven, one FPO, namely Ausher Kissan Producer Company Limited (AKPCL) was selected purposively because of its functional superiority over others. Data were collected by using a well-structured interview schedule. A total of 20 members and 40 non-member farmers were randomly sampled in the functional area of FPO-AKPCL to delineate the constraints faced by them. The results revealed that inadequate storage facilities, shortage of transportation facilities, lack of grading and packaging skills, revelry among members to achieve key positions in the organization, and challenging each other for key positions in the group were the significant constraints faced by the member farmers. Lack of well-developed storage facilities, lack of well-developed processing facilities, lack of awareness about grading and packaging, high cost of labor, and price fluctuation every year were the major constraints faced by the member as well as non-member farmers of FPO. It can be concluded that by removing above hurdles’, many help enable farmers’ access to the markets through FPOs, both as buyers and sellers, thereby improving farmers’ income.

Survey work was carried out with the sample of 50 farmers in five different villages of the Malwan block of Fatehpur district of U.P. were selected purposively and randomly keeping because of having the highest area under Banana cultivation in district Fatehpur and based on the increasing trend in the area under production and production of banana. Sample villages were taken, keeping in view that they fall in the banana-rich area, and also the samples resemble the entire population. Data analysis reveals that the producer’s share in consumer’s rupee is 35.52 percent and wholesaler’s net margin 18.71 percent, and retailer’s net margin 26.86 percent of the total marketing margin of banana in channel I. The channel II contractor’s net margin is found 3.6 percent, wholesaler’s net margin, 17.99 percent, and the retailer’s net margin was 25.95 percent of the total marketing margin of banana in the study area.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the improved integrated farming system performance at the fields of 30 selected tribal farmers of three selected villages of Vallabhnagar tehsil of Udaipur district (Rajasthan) during 2018-19 and compared with the benchmark year 2015-16. Various interventions from MPUAT experts were provided regarding inputs and their timely use and the training programs for these farmers. It was concluded that during 2018-19 FS IV (Crop + Dairy + Vegetable) and FS V (Crop + Dairy + Vegetable + Fruit Orchard) were highly efficient as these systems gave the highest returns per rupee of investment. In contrast, FS VIII (Crop + Dairy + Goat + Vegetable + Fruit Orchard) was efficient in terms of employment generation as it leads to the generation of 463 man-days. As a result, higher profitability and productivity with the lesser cost of cultivation of improved integrated farming system were obtained compared to the existing integrated farming system during the benchmark year.

The present study was initiated during 2019-20 to illustrate the comparison between zero budget natural farming and conventional farming systems in terms of the economics of selected major crops cultivated under ZBNF system in the Northern Dry Zone of Karnataka. In order to identify main differences between natural and conventional farming practices, descriptive statistics have been used to analyze the primary data collected from 80 farmers across the 8 districts of the northern dry zone of Karnataka. The study was planned to highlight the main characteristics of those two systems to address the differences in cost and returns. The results revealed that the total cost under ZBNF was observed to be lower than the conventional farming system. The average yield realized under ZBNF system was slightly lower than a conventional farming system in all the crops except foxtail millet. This is clearly indicated that the ZBNF system was performed well in millets cultivation under the rainfed situation. And around 92 percent of the farmers experienced that, the cost of cultivation under ZBNF was minimized. Further, the study highlighted a statistically significant difference between ZBNF and conventional yield levels, cost of cultivation, and income at multiple locations. According to the ’farmer’s opinion, most farmers opined that the pest and disease were unable to manage in ZBNF.

Basmati rice is considered a “strategic“ agricultural export commodity from India and has consequently remained subject to a wide range of government interventions. Basmati rice is exported from India to many countries, especially to the Gulf and European countries. A steady increase in Bbasmati rice production, availability of buffer stocks, and growing demand for basmati rice in the international market made India a vital rice exporting country of the world. The present study explored the structural changes in basmati rice exports from India from 1991 to 2020. The stability in the importing partners of basmati rice from India was analyzed using first-order Markov chain analysis. The compound annual growth rate for the export quantity of basmati rice varied from 5.74 to 12.65 percent per annum. In contrast, the export value of basmati rice ranged between 4.40 to 21.06 percent per annum during the three selected decades. Further, the basmati rice export value showed higher instability than export quantity. Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates served to be the stable importers. In contrast, the United States and the United Kingdom served as the most unstable markets for Indian basmati rice according to the transitional probability matrix. Therefore, to reduce variability in exports of basmati rice, India should maintain long-term stable trading partners further to increase the export earnings.