Given its range of agro-ecological setting and producers, Indian Agriculture is faced with a great diversity of needs, opportunities and prospects. The well endowed irrigated areas which account for 37 percent of the country’s cultivated land currently contribute about 55 percent of agricultural production, whereas, rainfed agriculture which covers 63 percent accounts for only 45 percent of agricultural production. In these less favorable areas, yields are not only low but also highly unstable and technology transfer gaps are much wider as compared to those in irrigated areas. If it is to respond successfully to these challenges, greater attention will have to be

paid to information-based technologies. Strengthened means of dissemination will be needed to transmit this information to farmers. Both technology generation and transfer will have to focus more strongly than ever before on the themes of optimization in the management of their available resources by producers, sustainability, coping with diversity by adapting technology more specifically to agro-ecological or social circumstances and raising the economic efficiency of agriculture. To make information transfer more effective, greater use will need to be made of modern information technology and communication among researchers, extension workers and farmers.

Since time immemorial, human beings have been migrating in search of resources to make a living or to occupy territories to establish power over the other. All types of human societies underwent the process of migration in one way or the other. But, migration of the members of a hunting gathering community to urban centres is not a very common phenomenon. An interesting question to explore in this context is; what made a hunting-gathering community to migrate to urban centres? The paper explores historical as well as contemporary migration with the case study of a hunting-gathering community, the Chenchus of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states of India. It examines the causes and consequences of migration and analyses the implications on Indian tribal Communities.

India’s economic security is heavily dependent on agriculture. About half of India’s population is either wholly or significantly dependant for their livelihoods on some form of farm activity – be it crop agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry or fisheries. Although the Green Revolution increased production and productivity of food crops, improved food security and raised rural incomes, India still has a large

poor (27.5 per cent of the population living below the poverty line based on 2004-05 data) and malnourished population.

Climate-induced natural disasters (CINDs) including droughts, floods, cyclones and heat waves have become serious problems to Orissa, a coastal state of India. Fluctuating weather conditions in the state suggest that it is reeling under a climatic chaos. It has been experiencing contrasting weather like heat waves to cyclone and from drought to flood for more than a decade. The dramatic change in state’s ecology and weather conditions are perhaps consequences of climate change. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) links vulnerability with climatic change and point out that the vulnerability of a region depends largely on its wealth and poverty, which limits the adaptive capabilities The socio-economic systems of the state like Orissa remains more vulnerable to CIND because of high reliance on natural resources, limited ability to adapt financially and intuitionally, low per capita GDP, acute poverty and lack of safety nets. Vulnerability is social condition of measuring coping ability that differs across the regions, economic sectors and social groups. The historical disparities in the socio-economic structure of the state shaped the social vulnerability of the population and their responses to cope with looming crisis. These disparities are derived from caste, class, occupation, age difference and socially marginalized population which will result into uneven impact of hazards on the various communities in different districts of Orissa. This article examines how the pre-existing social vulnerability within different districts of Orissa interacted with catastrophe to produce socio-spatial pattern recovery.

Public Distribution System not only provides essential goods to the common man at a reasonable price, but it also enables the farmers to get a suitable price for their produce. The PDS, despite its much success, has over the years manifested a broad array of problems particularly with reference to its management. The extent and timing of procurement, poor forecasting capacity, antiquated logistical systems to support storage and delivery functions, inappropriate product mix, cost inefficiencies, poor quality food grain, harassment of consumers at the point of client interface and exclusion of large number of the poor from the system are some of the problems which hinder the effectiveness of the public distribution system. Keeping these perspectives in view, this paper analyses the views of PDS

beneficiaries about the quantity and quality of commodities supplied by the fair price shops in Haryana and Gujarat.