<![CDATA[NCAER-Agriculture]]> <![CDATA[Agriculture]]> https://www.ncaer.org/category_details.php?cID=20 Studies

Water-to-Cloud: Correlating socio-economic indicators with river water quality





The Ganga River basin spreaded across multiple states of India is the world’s most populous river basin. But, the pressure of industrialization and urbanisation makes the basin vulnerable to incessant outpouring of sewage and large volumes of solid and industrial wastes. While there are studies to show the effect of drinking water on human health, there is a need to address the issue of socio-economic indicators’ correlations with surface water pollution and study the causality therein. The primary aim of the project is to study the socio-economic and livelihood implications of Ganga river water pollution by correlating the real time pollution parameters with self-reported livelihood measures. The two groups chosen for survey are fisherman and households in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh respectively. The specific objectives of the study are: 1. To understand the effect of water pollution on the livelihood of fishermen. 2. To calculate the direct and indirect health costs of households associated with Ganga river water usage.

Agricultural Diagnostic for Bihar State of India





This NCAER study is aimed at undertaking a diagnostic of the agricultural sector to help inform and operationalise the Government of Bihar vision for agriculture in the next 5 years. The study will (a) assess the drivers of agricultural productivity and growth in Bihar; (b) assess and rank the obstacles to inclusive growth; (c) identify actions to increase this sector’s productivity and promote inclusive growth to help this sector move to a sustained higher-growth path. The policy recommendations of this diagnostic will help policy makers, donors and other stakeholders to the success of Bihar’s agricultural sector enhance the decisions they make on policies and programmes to deliver inclusive growth of this sector and greater food security for the state of Bihar. Aligned with the Bihar Agriculture Road Map of the Government of Bihar, the purpose of this study is also to develop practical, evidence-based policy options to support sustainable growth in this sector.  

Doubling Farmer's Income





The Government of India has focused its attention on doubling the farmers’ income during the seven-year period from 2015–16 to 2022–23, marking a significant departure from past policies when the emphasis had been only on production rather than the marketability of the produce. In order to provide analytics for this focus, a Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income was constituted in April 2016 under the chairmanship of Dr Ashok Dalwai, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The Committee has adopted three institutes as its knowledge partners. While the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) is one of them, the other two are the National Institute of Agricultural Research Policy (NIAP), and the National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCD). The DFI Committee has held multiple consultations with stakeholders across the country and has co-opted more than 100 resource persons to help it in drafting the Report. These members have been drawn from among researchers, academics, non-government organisations, farmers’ organisations, professional associations, trade, industry, commerce, consultancy bodies, policymakers at the Central and State levels, and many others with various domain strengths. While thirteen volumes of the DFI Committee Report have already been prepared, Volume XIV on the Comprehensive Policy Recommendations of the DFI Committee is in the process of finalisation. The Committee has identified six major sources for increasing farmers’ income, viz., improvement in crop productivity, livestock productivity, resource use efficiency or promoting savings in the cost of production, increase in cropping intensity, diversification towards high-value crops, and enhancement of the real prices received by farmers. With the DFI strategy focusing on doubling the farmers’ income, all those associated with the programme at both the Central and State levels need to disaggregate the interventions for achieving a higher share of farm income in the farmers’ cumulative income. Hence, it has been targeted to change the ratio of farm to non-farm income from the existing 60: 40 (in 2015–16) to 70: 30 (by 2022–23), which would ensure greater viability for farming.

Doubling Farmers' Income





Agriculture plays an important role in the overall growth of the Indian economy. While the share of agriculture in GDP has declined sharply during the last five decades the dependence of the rural workforce on agriculture for employment has not declined in the same proportion. This has widened income disparity between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. A Committee chaired by Dr Ashok Dalwai, was set up at the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, in April 2016 to look into various aspects of growth in farmers’ income. The Committee has adopted NCAER as one of the knowledge partners in this work. The Report of the Committee is structured through 14 volumes. The draft versions of the first four volumes of the “Strategy for Doubling Farmers’ Income by 2022” have been uploaded on the website of the Department of Agriculture Cooperation & Farmers Welfare.

Food Grain Stocking Policy for India





Pending legislation, which will guarantee access by the poor to a specified quantity of food grains, the National Food Security Bill stands to have a major impact on the food grain stocking policy in India. The Bill mentions cash transfers and issuing food coupons to eligible families. However, no concrete steps have been spelled out on this front. It is therefore supposed that the present system of procurement and storage of food grains by the Central and State government agencies shall continue. The successful implementation of the Act will clearly require that much larger stocks be held. Whether these stocks are held by the government or the private sector depends on new instruments being created, e.g., negotiable warehouse receipts-, on new institutions such as public-private partnerships in warehousing and on changes to the legal structure, especially the Essential Commodities Act and the Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act

Agricultural Outlook and Situation Analysis Reports for India; Incorporating the Best International Practices





This project is complementary to the NCAER study commissioned by Ministry of Agriculture on Agricultural Outlook and Situation Analysis Reports. The project will help to build capacity for providing regular and periodic reports on agricultural outlook and will utilise international best practices in this regard.

Agricultural Outlook and Situation Analysis for Food Security





The study focuses on integrating information relating to inputs, outputs, and markets for the major agricultural products to provide an assessment of the emerging agricultural outlook in the economy. The study will consider developments in the domestic economy and also global markets with implications for Indian agriculture and focus on food crops, given the significance of achieving food security for India’s population. The study will also provide 2–3 analytical papers on issues relating to the development of the food sector in the country.

Capturing the Potential of Greenhouse Gas Offsets in Indian Agriculture





The primary objective of this research is to develop policies and programs targeted at the early exploitation of the most cost effective GHG abatement options within Indian agriculture. Subsidiary objectives are to document current national policy settings affecting the Indian agricultural sector which may inadvertently be encouraging high emission production activities or the use of energy intensive inputs; review developments in the GHG policy settings of other countries, with particular regard to the proposed role of agriculture; quantify the scope for cost-effective mitigation within India’s agricultural sector; assess the economy-wide impacts of agricultural policy reform and the introduction of an agricultural offsets policy on agricultural productivity, food security, rural incomes, employment, trade and emissions; and assess alternative policy designs and institutional arrangements that can efficiently deliver GHG mitigation by the agricultural sector

India's Cotton Revolution: Outcomes and Insights





India’s cotton economy has witnessed significant changes after the introduction of Bt technology in 2002. In a relatively short span of 10 years, the country has become the second largest producer of cotton in the world. The rapid growth in India’s cotton production has attracted a lot of attention within as well as outside the country due to a highly contentious debate that took place before and immediately after the introduction of this technology. The purpose of this study is to undertake a fresh and comprehensive assessment of how the introduction of Bt technology transformed the socioeconomic status of cotton growers and benefited industries associated with cotton.

National Spatial Data Infrastructure and NCAER





In November 2000, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India constituted a task force under the Chairmanship of the Surveyor General of India for evolving a vision for National Spatial Data Infrastructure and for formulating a strategy and an action plan. A vision, strategy and action plan document was consequently prepared and discussed in an International Workshop organized jointly by the Department of Space and Department of Science and Technology and was endorsed by a large number of Ministries and Departments and various other professional organisations.The project aims at making available current and accurate spatial data to contribute to local, state and national development and also to the decision making, economic growth, environmental quality and stability, and social progress.

Publications

Impact Evaluation of the Maharashtra CAIM Programme





The Vidarbha region in Maharashtra since long been facing an acute agrarian crisis, causing distress to a large part of the local population whose primary occupation is agriculture. The crisis has been shaped by a number of factors, including fragmentation of land leading to tiny landholdings, scanty and irregular rainfall, sparse irrigation facilities, and lack of opportunities for non-farm activities. Six of the 11 constituent districts of Vidarbha—Akola, Amravati, Buldhana, Wardha, Washim, and Yavatmal—have been most adversely affected by the crisis, which has tragically led even to a spate of suicides by farmers in the region. In this backdrop, the Government of Maharashtra, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) joined hands to form a consortium to fund a programme to ensure a steady increase in the incomes of the poor farmers and farm workers in the rural hinterland of Vidarbha. Implementation of this programme, titled, Convergence of Agriculture Interventions in Maharashtra (CAIM), commenced in 2012 and ended in December 2018. A socio-economic impact evaluation study was carried out by NCAER during January-June, 2019 which observed that the CAIM supported programmes had noticeably and sustainably enhanced the living conditions of the households and villages in distress, with a large number of households benefitting from it. The programme has helped achieve considerable level of women’s empowerment and tangible long-term benefits for the targeted population through various means, including debt redemption, drudgery reduction, a micro livelihood plan, social enterprises, and joint asset ownership.

The NCAER 2019-20 Mid-Year Review of the India Economy





NCAER’s Mid-Year Review of the Indian Economy (MYR) presents the most comprehensive, independent assessment of the Indian economy. The 2019-20 Review has been published in a longstanding partnership with the India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi.

Study on Agricultural Diagnostics for the State of Bihar in India





Fully 70 percent of its Bihar's rural work force is employed in agriculture, which contributes over a quarter of the state GDP. Hence, rapid agricultural development remains important for Bihar. Recognizing this, the State government started implementing what it called Agricultural Road Maps in 2008, and is currently on its third Road Map (2012-13 to 2016-17), all aimed at increasing productivity growth in the crop and livestock sectors and boosting farm incomes. Agricultural growth responded well to these new initiatives in their first four years, reaching 3.1 percent per annum during the first Road Map, but declined to 1.3 percent in the second Road Map, averaged about 2.0 percent during 2001 to 2017, and has shown a decelerating trend since 2012- 13. What explains these trends in Bihar’s agriculture development? To answer these and related questions, NCAER has partnered with DFID, the UK Department for International Development in India, to do an agricultural sector diagnostic study for the state to understand the economic, natural, technological, and political constraints that Bihar agriculture faces, and what it should do to alleviate these constraints. The key goal of this work has been to identify the binding constraints to faster and more sustainable agricultural growth in Bihar. The search for such binding constraints has covered both the crop and livestock sectors, and has looked at land switching from low-value to higher value crops, crop diversification, crop yield improvements, and input intensification.

Identifying Binding Constraints to Agricultural Growth in Bihar





Given fund shortages, government can at best address one/two most important constraints for agricultural growth. Applying Hausmann growth diagonostic framework, we have attempted to identify binding constraints to agricultural growth in Bihar. We find that the poor functioning of agricultural markets, reflected in the instability in the prices of agricultural produces and the low level of crop diversification, are the reasons for slow or lower agricultural growth in Bihar.

Sources of Crop Output Growth in Bihar: Implications for Policy Interventions





Bihar has a geographical area of 9.4 million hectares and fertile agricultural land spread across the Indo-Gangetic plains. The net cultivated area in the state accounted for about 57 per cent of the total reported geographical area during 2012-14. Over 70 per cent of rural workers depend on agriculture for livelihood. Despite its importance for the economic growth of the state, the agricultural sector had for long remained neglected, needing a big policy push for unleashing its growth potential. In order to address this shortcoming, the Government of Bihar launched agriculture roadmaps with specific targets for output, distribution of inputs, and service delivery, to be achieved within a specified time frame. In this context, this policy brief has been prepared for assessing whether input intensification or technological change is driving growth in crop output.

Growth and Structural Transformation of Agriculture in Bihar





The economy of Bihar is dominated by agriculture, which contributes over a quarter of the state’s income and accounts for employment of about 70 per cent of the rural workforce. Hence, robust growth of the agriculture sector holds the key to the economic and social development of the state. Keeping this in view, the Government of Bihar has launched many initiatives for improving productivity growth in the crop and livestock sectors. These include the development of irrigation, strengthening the input supply and extension programmes, and introduction of market reforms and farm mechanisation, among others. These initiatives are being implemented under different phases of the agriculture roadmaps, laid down by the Government of Bihar. These roadmaps focus on the holistic development of agriculture with an emphasis on increasing productivity growth and improving farmers’ income. In this context, this policy brief attempts to identify the sources of Crop Output Growth in Bihar in the last decade and a half. This is must to identify the scope for Policy Interventions.

Agricultural Outlook and Situation Analysis Reports





The NCAER 2017 Rabi Outlook Report provides a comprehensive assessment of the current availability of inputs, monsoon rainfall, demand conditions in domestic and global markets, and government policies, all of which are likely to impact this year's Rabi crop. The work underlying the Report has been supported by the National food Security Mission, Government of Inda, ad the Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmer Welfare.

Agricultural Outlook Report - Kharif 2016





The Report states that the current global agricultural outlook scenario characterized by abundant supplies of cereals and soybean meal, tightening of vegetable oil supplies and an overall increase in pulse production in most major exporting countries present a mixed fortune for India, which used to be a major exporter of wheat, maize, sugar, and soybean meal and is a large importer of vegetable oils and pulses.

Mid-Year Review of the Indian Economy 2015-16





NCAER’s Mid-Year Review of the Indian Economy (MYR) presents the most comprehensive, independent assessment of the Indian economy. The 2015–16 Review has been published for the fifth year running in a longstanding partnership with the India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi. The MYR 2015 includes two special papers, also included in this publication.

Agricultural Outlook and Situation Analysis Reports: Fifth Medium-term Agricultural Outlook Report





The report provides a comparison of the latest medium-term projections for wheat, rice, coarse grains, oilseeds, vegetable oils and sugar made by five international institutions (OECD/FAO, USDA, FAPRI, and IGC) on the supply and demand conditions globally and for India. A standalone model for Indian agricultural markets, using the OECD/FAO developed COSIMO model and an econometric model developed by NCAER have been used for medium-term projections. Realising the importance of the livestock sector in providing nutrition, better returns to farmers and as a means for diversification of Indian agriculture, a chapter on status and prospects of livestock sector is also covered in this report.

Events

Mid-Year Review of the Economy 2017-18

November 11, 2017



In a long standing partnership with the India International Centre, NCAER released its 2017-18 Mid-year Review (MYR) of the Indian Economy, at the India International Centre, New Delhi. The MYR presents the most comprehensive, independent assessment of the Indian economy.

Malcolm Adiseshiah Mid-Year Review of the Indian Economy 2017-18

November 11, 2017

Malcolm Adiseshiah Mid-Year Review of the Indian Economy, 2016-17

November 5, 2016



NCAER presented the 2016-17 Mid Year Review of Indian Economy at a seminar held in New Delhi. The review presents the most comprehensive, independent assessment of the Indian economy as the Indian Government and its Ministry of Finance begin preparation of the FY 2017-18 Union Budget. Dr Pronab Sen, Country Director, International Growth Centre’s India Central Programme chaired the Review.

Test for Live Streaming

October 4, 2016

State of the Economy Seminar April 2016

February 4, 2016



NCAER released its widely-reported Quarterly Review of the Economy at this seminar held at NCAER. The report includes review of the Indian Economy 2015-16 and the Forecast for 2016-17.

Malcolm Adiseshiah Mid-Year Review of the Indian Economy 2015-16

November 14, 2015



The Review of Indian Economy presented by NCAER today, covered the performance of the economy during the first half of the current fiscal year and made projections for the later part of the year. The presentations were Webcast Live, enabling remote participation.

Dialogue on Land, Conflict and Investment Risks in India

September 3, 2015



India’s growing energy, industry, and development needs require a substantial transformation in land use, impacting millions of customary users of land. To date, India has been struggling to address the challenges arising out of these transformations, as indicated by a rising number of land-related conflicts affecting at least a quarter of the country’s districts.

State of the Economy Seminar

May 14, 2015



NCAER presented its Quarterly Review of the Economy at this seminar held at NCAER. The review covered the performance of the economy in the last quarter of 2014-15 and presented forecast for 2015-16.

The Future of Indian Agriculture: Policy Options for Competitive, Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

April 8, 2015



NCAER has been working on the future of Indian agriculture and policy options for more competitive, inclusive and sustainable growth.This work is being supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). NCAER is working closely with faculty at Monash and Victoria Universities in Melbourne; IFPRI in Washington, D.C.; NSW Trade and Investment; and IDFC. In this context, NCAER organised an important workshop on The Future of Indian Agriculture: Policy Options for Competitive, Inclusive and Sustainable Growth.

The Neemrana Conference 2014

December 13, 2014



Neemrana is the most prestigious forum in India for some of the best US scholars associated with NBER to come together with Indian policymakers and policy analysts from the public and private sectors. For 2014 conference, NCAER brought together a varied and exciting set of Indian participants to engage with our visiting NBER researchers on issues of common policy interest dealing with Indian, US, and global economic developments.

Researchers

Shayequa Zeenat Ali



Shayequa Zeenat Ali is an Associate Fellow at NCAER. Her research interests are in agricultural economics, labour, poverty and inequality, and gender. At NCAER she has been working on our study on the gems and jewelry sector and on the impact assessment of the Monsoon Mission on farmers.   She was earlier a research associate with the Centers for International Projects Trust, Columbia Water Centre in New Delhi, and at the National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research. She has worked on the food and agriculture sector, including on the effectiveness of the Minimum Support Price Policy for paddy, growth patterns of wheat productivity in the Punjab, and strengthening value chains for fruits and vegetables in the Punjab. She was an ICSSR doctoral fellow during 2017-18. 

Shashanka Bhide



Dr Shashanka Bhide is a Senior Advisor, Research Programmes, at NCAER. He was associated with NCAER from 1982 to 2014 in different capacities. After leaving NCAER in July 2014, he took up the position of Director, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai until his retirement in December 2018. His research has covered a number of areas in agriculture, macroeconomic modelling, infrastructure and poverty analysis. He has published extensively, including co-authoring and editing books and journal articles in these fields. Shashanka currently also serves as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of RBI and Board of Governors of the Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bangalore.

Tarujyoti Buragohain



Tarujyoti Buragohain is an Associate Fellow at NCAER., Her research interests include infrastructure and energy issues. She has written several project reports for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Ministry of Human Research Development.  She has been a member of the Advisory Committee for Monitoring and Evaluation of Solar Photovoltaics in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy,  a member of the Research Advisory Committee on Tribal Development Research in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and is a life member of Bhartiya Arthik Shodh Sansthan and the Input–Output Research Association.

Ruchi Jain



Ruchi Jain is a Senior Research Analyst at NCAER with a background in Population Studies. Her areas of research interest are maternal and child health, reproductive and sexual health, migration and rural development. At NCAER, she has worked on various projects like IDRC, HDPI and Rural Housing.  She holds a doctorate degree in population studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai. Her thesis focused on the risky behaviours of the single migrant women in Delhi. She was a recipient of the UGC-NET fellowship for her PhD at IIPS. 

Laxmi Joshi



Laxmi Joshi is a Fellow at NCAER with research interests in agriculture and rural development. She has worked on issues related to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, economic benefits of weather and marine services, air pollution issues in agriculture, India’s cotton revolution, and the national policy for farmers. Before NCAER, she worked at the National Commission on Farmers and the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research. 

Devender Pratap



Devender Pratap is a Fellow at NCAER. His current research interests include trade policy analysis/CGE modelling, GTAP database, social accounting matrix, input output analysis, construction of base-run for CGE modelling, macro-econometric modelling and agricultural/livestock economy. At NCAER, he has handled three major CGE models in single-country and multi-country frameworks. He has also been involved in the NCAER survey of agricultural markets in India.  

Ajaya Kumar Sahu



Ajaya Kumar Sahu is a Senior Research Analyst at NCAER. His expertise lies in conducting primary survey that involves sampling and weight calculations, handling large scale data like NSSO employment and consumption data as well as ASI data. Further, he works on poverty analysis, and issues related to agriculture and rural development areas.   He completed his M. Phil in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and is presently pursuing his Ph. D in Economics from Jamia Milia Islamia. He cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) with the Junior Research Fellowship, conducted by the UGC.

Anil Kumar Sharma



Anil K. Sharma is a Professor and Secretary and Operations Director at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). 

 

He has held several positions at NCAER after joining in 1992. He has also been the NABARD Chair Professor at NCAER; Visiting Researcher at the International Trade Division, The World Bank, Washington D.C. USA; Consultant to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Rome, and Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila; and, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, Budapest, Hungary.

 

His main areas of research include - The WTO Agreement on Agriculture, Economic and Policy Reforms in Agriculture, Price Policy and Price Stabilization Mechanisms, Rural Credit, Rural Infrastructure and Rural Poverty. He advised the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on trade negotiations in agriculture under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture and has been a member of several government and industry committees and task forces.

Dinesh Kumar Tiwari



Dinesh Kumar Tiwari is an Associate Fellow at NCAER. He is an anthropologist with a rich experience of primary data collection for large scale social surveys, qualitative interviews and experimental data collection with a specific emphasis on field management, monitoring and supervision, ensuring data quality.  At NCAER he has worked for the India Human Development Survey (IHDS). He is currently engaged with the National Data Innovation Centre of NCAER. His areas of interest include migration studies, ethnographic research, public health and experimental economics. 

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