Of recent, the government of Nigeria has been keen in changing the narrative of rice production viz. striving to make the country self-sufficient in rice production. To achieve this, various efforts viz. import ban, credit support programmes etc were embarked upon to boost domestic production in order to meet its demand and possibly engage in exportation soonest. It is in view of this that this research was conceptualized to see whether this goal is feasible or the country would remain a net importer. Time series data which spanned for a period of 58 years (1961-2018) and covered production, area, yield and producer prices were used. The data source was FAO data bank and the collected data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The empirical evidence showed that growth rate in the production of rice through the economic reform periods was driven majorly by area expansion with technological effect been marginal. In addition, the current acreage allocation was governed by price, area and institutional factors. Furthermore, rice production has been marked by virulent instability across all the reform periods, thus the country’s rice production has not been in the comfort zone. In addition, the empirical evidence showed area risk and uncertainty-climate change to be the major factors responsible for production variability across the reform periods. Besides, area effect predominates in determining the production growth of rice throughout the economic periods. The future food security of rice in the decade ahead is not promising given that the production trend of rice would be fluctuating, thus a threat to the country’s economic viz. rice food security and foreign reserve. Therefore, realistic and holistic policies are needed to change the future narrative of the country’s rice food security; otherwise the country will remained a net importer.

The price of agricultural commodity shows seasonal nature with low price immediately after harvest which increases gradually to reach maximum just prior to next harvest. The price of sweet orange and lime also exhibits strong seasonality due to their seasonal nature of production and higher perishability which may exacerbate the poverty of small holding farmers but also can increase the profit of farmers if it can be properly utilized. However, the knowledge about seasonal price movement of these fruits in Nepal is inadequate. Thus, this study was conducted to analyze the seasonal price variation and business opportunities of Lime and Sweet oranges in Nepal which may be useful in developing appropriate policy response for price stabilization. The ratio-to-moving average method was used to study the seasonal price variation and business opportunities. The results from this study revealed the strong seasonal nature of price movement with the highest seasonal index in Baishakh for lime and Ashad for sweet orange whereas the lowest seasonal index for lime and sweet orange in Poush and Kartik respectively. The magnitude of price variability was high and the gross storage return for both lime and sweet orange was also higher. Similarly, the wholesale price of sweet orange and lime showed significant and increasing trend. This concludes that the earning from sale of lime and sweet orange is highly unstable due to the seasonal nature of their prices and the storage and sale of these commodity during the lean season of production would be profitable.

The present study was undertaken to analyze the trends in area, production and productivity of major food grain crops for the period 1995-96 to 2015-16 obtaining data from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi. Foodgrains are cultivated in India in an area of 123.22 million hectares with a production of 251.57 million tonnes. The results of the study revealed that the food grains production in the country has increased at a rate of 1.73 per cent per annum which was contributed by negligible increase in area and productivity during the study period. The production-wise scenario of foodgrains has indicated that, major cereals like rice, wheat and maize showed consistent improvement, but pulses production was not consistent. As a coarse cereal, maize stands in an important position next to rice and wheat, due to its multiple uses with yield increases from about 1595 Kg per ha during 1995-96 to 2563 Kg per ha during 20015-16. The computed growth trend for total food grains in India was positive (0.008) and significant (P<0.01) for production and growth for productivity was positive (0.006) and significant (P<0.01).

The study was conducted in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh because of its significant contribution to the area and production of Litchi in the state. The current study was an attempt to find out marketing cost, market margins, price spread, and marketing efficiency of litchi growers in the selected area. The interview schedule was use to collect primary data from 60 growers of the Kangra district and from 5 wholesalers, 5 retailers and 5 pre-harvest contractors in the market. The findings indicated that most of the farmers sold their produce through the pre-harvest contractor. Also, three main marketing channels were found prevalent in the study area for the marketing of Litchi crops. The channel-C (Producer → Pre-harvest contractor → Wholesaler → Retailer → Consumer) was found to be the most preferred channel as 50.28 percent of the produce was traded through this marketing channel. The price spread found to be maximum in channel-C which, was ` 3372.81. The marketing efficiency which was, estimated using Acharya’s method, discovered highest in channel-A followed by channels D, B, and C, respectively.

The present study was conducted in Jorhat District of Assam to study the factors affecting the farm household income and formulating some policies based on the identified factors. The study was based on sample survey employing multistage random sampling technique and a total number of 120 sample farmers consisting 72 marginal, 22 small, 14 medium and 12 large farmers were selected for generating primary data. A multiple log linear regression analysis was done to work out the factors affecting farmer’s income. Out of the seven identified factors, four factors viz., education level of the respondents, size of land holding, social participation & extension contact and number of income sources were found significant. The relationship of all the variables was found to be positive with the income of the households. Inclusion of agriculture as a subject in the school level; motivation of farmers towards co-operative farming; strengthening the extension contact; dissemination knowledge regarding marketing of the produce, multiple cropping and integrated farming, creation of self help groups amongst the farmers etc. maybe some of policy measures to increase the farm income in the study area.

Millets have high nutritional qualities and produce well under marginal conditions but they are not used to the extent that is possible. It is a number of small-grained cereal grasses and based on the grain size, millets classified as major millets and small grain millets. Major millets include sorghum and pearl millet whereas small grain millet includes finger millet, foxtail millet, kodo millet, proso millet, barnyard millet and little millet. Millets are rich in minerals and vitamins compared to rice and wheat; millets have the huge potential to provide security of food, nutrition, fodder, fiber, health, livelihood and ecology. In view of all these qualities those they so amazingly combine, millets only be called as Miracle Grains/ Nutria-Cereals. Inclusion of millet crops in a concerted way in cropping systems and also particularly in fragile ecosystems, is a virtuous move towards sustainability. Also, importance in marketing and value addition improves the millet cultivation. In this connection, the present study was carried out to examine the scenario of millets in India from 1950-51 to 2018-19 and data were collected from ministry of economics and statistics, seasonal and crop report and analysed by using compound growth rate. The growth rate of millet area and production registered negative growth i.e., area and production declining at the rate of 16.31 per cent and 13.58 per cent per year respectively. In the same way productivity was declining up to 2005 after that, it showed positive growth (3.23 per cent). Also, studied the economics of crops and observed that cost of cultivation for millet crops (sorghum and maize) compared to other important crops was lower i.e. Maize - ` 85915/ha, Sorghum - ` 47830/ha. In the same way, gross income realized by millet farmer was also low except maize crop. In India, the cost of cultivation was high in Tamil Nadu for most of the millet crop across the states due to the high human labour cost. Hence, there is a need to formulate suitable strategies considering the economic value of the crops. Therefore, the study came out with conclusion of proper cultivation practices, marketing and processing should be given to improve the millet production in India.

The present study investigates to growth and relative contribution of area and yield in production of green gram, black gram chickpea, pigeon pea and lentil pulse crops in India. The study period (1998-99 to 2017-18) is divided into three periods viz., period-I (1998-99 to 2007-08), period-II (2008-09 to 2017-18) and period-III (1998-99 to 2017-18). Time series data on area, production and yield were collected from Directorate of Pulses Development, Bhopal, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Government of India. The semi-log model, Cuddy-Della Valle instability index and decomposition analysis models were used to analyze the CAGR, instability and relative contribution of area, yield and interaction components. The study clearly finds that area and production of green gram (Vigna radiata) is notified highest compound annual growth rate 1.84 and 1.76 percent respectively, during period-I. In case of yield highest growth rate is reported in black gram (0.26 percent) during the same period. During second period, highest CAGR in area, production and yield is found in black gram at 6.00, 10.30 and 4.10 percent respectively. During all three periods, instability in area, production and yield was very low, except total pulse in second period. The decomposition analysis of production is revealed that yield effect and area effect are major sources of output growth in kharif and rabi pulses, respectively. The Identified growth rate in individual pulse crop is a great informative work because it provides chronological background of how the cultivation of pulses persuades the life of farmers either in negative or positive way. The study also tries to know the peak or trough in past cultivation of pulses crops.

The study on socio-economic and psychological profile of the KVK adopted farmers of improved rice cultivation practices was conducted in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya with 120 sample size from the adopted villages. Data collection was done with the help of pre-tested structured schedule through personal interview method. The majority of the respondents in adopted villages belonged to middle age category and medium level of education, nuclear family type and medium size of family with medium level of social participation. They engaged farming as primary occupation and had operational land holding size up to 1 ha with income level ranging from ` 25,900.00 to ` 1, 65,067.00. Most of the beneficiary farmers had farming experience between the ages of 18 to 38 years, received medium level of trainings, financial credit facility from government sources. The beneficiary had medium level of economic motivation, information seeking behaviour, decision-making ability, innovation proneness and attitude towards KVK with high level of market orientation and risk orientation. The study further indicates that among the various problems identified by the respondents, inadequate availability of quality seed at proper time was highlighted as the major problem by the rice cultivators.

The present study is an attempt to assess the cost of cultivation and economic viability of orchid cultivation in the hilly area of West Bengal with a unique set of primary data collected purposively during 2017-18 from the farm level. Based on farm size, farmers were categorised into three i.e. category-I (500 ft2), category-II (640 ft2) and category-III (1000 ft2). Returns from different categories were found to increase with the time as Orchid usually shows significant boost in yield with time. The estimated costs of establishment of orchid farm for Category- I (500 sq. ft), Category- II (640 sq ft) and Category-III (1000 sq ft) were ` 67117.89, ` 69870.67 and ` 159746.51 respectively. The average net income in absolute term had been worked out to be ` 46,354.2, ` 34,143.2 and ` 1, 97,760 respectively. The values of financial feasibility analysis with Net Present Value (` 97,971.3), Benefit-Cost Ratio (1.76) and Internal Rate of Return (25.38%) also proved that Orchid was a financially viable enterprise. Pay-back-period (3 to 5 years) was also reliable for investment though it varied little with size of farm. Keeping the commercial prospect of Orchid, it may be suggested for concerted efforts and more investment towards R&D, infrastructure, extension for further development in this sector.

Coffee is an important commercial crop of the tropics and it is the largest and widely traded tropical agricultural commodity. The present study was conducted to examine integration of domestic and international markets of Indian coffee prices during 2005-06 to 2016-17. The domestic markets selected for coffee prices were Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad markets. Similarly, international markets were International coffee organization (ICO), New York and London. The results revealed that, Johansen’s Co-integration of Arabica and Robusta group prices had long run equilibrium and also implied strength and stability of price linkages between selected markets. Granger causality test showed that ICO and New York markets uni-directionally influenced the price of Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad markets, respectively but there was bi-directional causality among the selected domestic wholesale Robusta group markets. Bangalore and Chennai markets are considered to be dependent on the other markets, the speed of adjustment in Robusta group coffee was registered 54 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively. There is need to spend much more money on demand creation, like cafe coffee day, which help to promote coffee consumption within the country. So our producers fetch the better prices for their produce.

The study was undertaken in Rewari and Sonepat district of Haryana to analyze factors influencing and various technological and socio-economic constraints to crop diversification. The study was based on both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected from randomly selected 25 farmers each from randomly selected villages. The secondary source of data used pertains to the period 2006-07 to 2016-17. To determine the factors influencing crop diversification multiple linear regression model was used as its superiority over the other regression models and is easy to compute and interpret. Among the factors influencing crop diversification, age, education and size of land holding signicantly affected crop diversification in a positive manner while, income affected in a negative manner. To determine the technological and socio-economic constraints to crop diversification Garret’s ranking technique was used. Among the various technological and socio-economic constraints for crop diversification, lack of proper marketing facilities and lack of technical know-how were recorded to be the major constraints for crop diversification faced by farmers.

Study was conducted in least vulnerable districts (LVD) and highly vulnerable districts (HVD) of Karnataka. The results reveal that, in the LVD most of the farmers perceived that lower productivity and profitability of crops as the most visible impact of the climate change which has been ranked 1st (75.33 score) and incidence of farmers suicide with a score of 9.82 being ranked last. In case of HVD, farmers perceived increasing rural-out migration (78.98) as a most threatening impact of climate change hence it is placed at 1st rank and increasing price of food items with garette score of 27.12 placed at last rank. In both HVD and LVD, most of the farmers chosed drip irrigation, availing crop insurance scheme and construction of farm pond as the first line of defence to mitigate effects of climate change. However, the mitigation measures adopted by farmers to overcome the problem of groundwater depletion and climate change was found to be higher in HVD as against LVD.

Institutional credit is one important input for progressive agriculture. We expect efficient role of land to generate formal credit for the small farmers in the post tenancy reform period in India as secured land holding is ensured by such land reform policy. We have used NSSO 70th round unit level data on survey of agricultural households and quantile regression as a method to support the paper empirically. Volume of institutional credit is our dependent variable which is explained by land holding as well as different household level characteristics like caste, gender, religion and education. We found formal schooling, land and caste as significant factors to control the volume of formal credit but at different extent for different quantile ranges of the formal credit in India. Up to fiftieth quantile of institutional credit, land is more helpful to those who borrow more. But one unit of land is rather less helpful in generating higher volumes of credit in the quantile ranges above the median level. We conclude redistribution of land is essential to increase financial inclusion in India.

Vegetables are an integral part of the human daily diet; it also plays a vital role in the contribution to the farmer’s income and the National income. Thus, a study was carried out to analyse and find out the most efficient marketing system and channel using the Shepherds and Modified Acharya-Agarwal marketing efficiency method. The article is based on the study of 300 farmers from twelve villages in Phek district, which is well known for vegetable production and marketing in Nagaland. The marketing cost, price spread, net margins, etc. have been discussed under various channels. The vegetables selected for the study were Cabbage, Beans, and Potato. Numerous production and marketing constraints were also observed, and suggestive recommendations were made to increase production and marketing efficiency. Three marketing Channels were observed, and the most efficient marketing channel was found to be Channel I, where there is direct marketing between the Producer and the Consumer.

Casual labour includes the labour of workers whose normal employment consists of a series of short-term jobs. Casual labour is mainly hired by the hour or day or for the performance of specific tasks. This paper present the comparative analysis of labour ratio and casual labour using secondary data for various NSSO surveys and Periodic Labour Force Survey reports issued by the Government of India. Findings of this study showed that unemployment rate in the rural sector was lower than urban sector for all the gender categories and the low value of LFPR and WPR in both Rajasthan and India which is a concern for the overall development of the economy. The proportion of casual labour was higher in the rural area than an urban area in both national and state-level, which indicates the low level of social security in the rural sector. Rajasthan has higher female earnings than the national level in all four seasons of work. Results also showed that in season April-June, the earnings of the casual labours are higher in all categories due to higher availability of work in that season. Due to excessive rains, the earnings in July- September season was less compare to other seasons. Results of this study showed that average earnings in the rural sector in public works like MGNREGA and others are higher in national level compared to Rajasthan. Average hour work in a week for casual labour in all four seasons was higher in Rajasthan than the national level, which shows labour intensive work condition in the state.

Socio-economic events that fall largely outside the purview of the direct control of a given economic agent allow much more rigorous quantitative modelling of effects that such events may have on that economic agent’s decision-making and the consequent economic outcomes. The on-going Corona pandemic across the Globe presents a unique case study to extract operationally exogenous shocks that can be subjected to further rigorous research as well as to help students learn about applied economics using real-time events rather than abstract theoretical generalizations. This pandemic has thrown a huge challenge for the largest democracy in the World, namely India. The subsequent series of lockdowns in India and the consequent unlocking process have given rise to several economic shocks that require urgent attention from both the academic and policy-making circles. An overview of the microeconomic and macroeconomic events that have been sparked by the current pandemic and, the several rounds of lockdowns and social unlocking, can help the policy makers to better understand how future policy interventions can improve economic outcomes in the post-COVID era. A brief overview of various such economic shocks and their implications are highlighted in this note. The aim is to highlight the most important economic concerns so as to motivate teaching and research that is driven by real-time concerns and that can shed more light on the ways in which people and institutions react to such a crisis with some indications on the possible road ahead.

A field study was conducted in Jorhat district of Assam. The objective of the study is to obtain a better understanding of the factors affecting rice production at the farm level. The data were collected from 80 farmers using multistage random sampling technique. A regression analysis Cobb –Douglas model was used to identify the factors affecting rice production at farm level (Adopters and Non Adopters).The empirical evidence finds that FYM cost (0.074) and fertilizer cost (0.107) were found to be positive and significant indicating that with 1 % increase in both the inputs would increase the rice production and thereby increase the gross return by 7.4 and 10.7 %, respectively. Problems faced by the farmers as collected by primary survey were ranked using the ranking method. Among adopters, the major problem observed was high seed cost according to 33.33 % of total adopters and lack of extension contacts was a serious problem as reported by 26.00 % of non adopters due to which they were lagging knowledge about flood tolerant rice varieties.

COVID-19, a pandemic disease caused by the coronavirus originated from China has been ravaging the entire global nations due to which the entire global economy is in the doldrums. The disease has been there in the entire globe since November 2019 and is expected to damage human beings and the world economies for a long time. In this article, we discuss the damage caused by the deadly virus to the Indian economy and the world economy as a whole. A word of caution is that until the vaccine is invented, the economies world will suffer to the maximum extent since most of the major economies of the globe are locked down due to the pandemic.

Jaipur district occupies first position in area and production of green chilli (Capsicum annum) in the state of Rajasthan. The present investigation was undertaken to study about growth rates in area, production and productivity of green chilli in Jaipur district as well as Rajasthan state. The secondary data on area, production and productivity of green chilli were collected for Jaipur district and Rajasthan state for the period 2002-03 to 2016-17. Growth rates were estimated by using statistical tools like linear model, compound growth rate model and CAGR mathematic model for calculating annual growth rate. The results revealed that area and production of green chilli were estimated to be significantly positive but productivity was negative in the district of Jaipur and the state of Rajasthan as a whole for the period 2002-03 to 2016-17. Results were also found that the growth rates in area and production of green chilli were estimated to be significantly positive i.e. 6.93 and 3.88 per cent per annum respectively, and productivity was negative i.e. -4.46 per cent per annum in the Jaipur district, whereas, in Rajasthan state, area and production of green chilli were estimated to be significantly positive i.e. 8.00 and 1.64 per cent per annum, respectively, and productivity was negative i.e. -0.013 per cent per annum during the period 2002-03 to 2016-17. Therefore, the study recommends increasing the productivity of the green chilli mainly by developing improved varieties of green chilli suiting to the changing agro climatic conditions of the state.

Backyard poultry is a low input or no input bird rearing practice and is characterized by indigenous night shelter system, scavenging system, with little supplementary feeding, natural hatching of chicks, poor productivity of birds local marketing and no health care practice which is usually takes place in back yard of rural household. This study has been done to understand the value chain of the back yard poultry in a depth manner in different stages. For the study the state, district and block has been selected purposively as this place was well known for the backyard poultry culture. The study is totally done by the help of sampling survey, FGD and some PRA tools. 60 samples of farmers 10 samples of middle man and 10 samples of consumers are taken to do the study. Sample of the farmers and consumers are selected by simple random sampling and the middle men are selected by the snowball sampling. Odisha is among one of the most vulnerable sufferer of the eastern coast cyclones, as the result of this the agriculture and the livestock which is the backbone of rural economy is badly affected. So the community focuses on the short term and low cost livestock backyard poultry to avoid a huge loss. In this study the system of back yard poultry has been studied clearly in all the stages, and sixteen different value chains are found. The detailed results and discussions are clearly elaborated.