Varying the Profitability and Cost of Cultivation: A Spatio-Temporal Economic Analysis

The several policies and initiatives has been taken to cope up the problem of agrarian distress, farmer suicides and to increase the farm employment across the different size classes of farming community The government of India (2016-17 budget) has set a policy target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 by ensuring the food security and income. The present study has explored the trend and pattern of cost of cultivation of paddy and wheat crop across some major producing states over the time period as cost of cultivation is treated one side of the coin while farmers’ income is the other side of the coin. The trend and pattern of different cost, profit, growth rate and efficiency of inputs have estimated across states over time. The descriptive analysis has been done using the CCS data published by CACP. There exists spatio-temporal variation in different costs, profit and growth. Thus a detailed review is needed to identify the state-wise important determinants (inputs) for the cultivation and after identifying the inputs supportive action is required through public policies

भारत मे किसान आत्महत्याये

Farmer suicides in India

The dynamics of host participation in tourism for effectively offsetting agrarian crisis in Wayanad

Wayanad, the green paradise of Kerala, is located in the Southern most part of the Deccan Plateau. Wayanad, where , majority of the population completely depend on agriculture for their livelihood, has been facing a high magnitude agrarian crisis in the last few years. This district has witnessed a number of farmer suicides and as a result of this; farmers are forced ato look our for some additional source of livelihood along with agriculture. Having a remarkable image of a beautiful tourist destination, the government of Kerala has identified Wayanad as a Tourism District and tourism is an emerging sector here. The scenic beauty, exotic landscape and rich heritage sites of Waynad offer several opportunities for a 360 degree tourism expansion in the district. Considering the district wise foreign tourist arrivals, Wayanad shows the highest variation among other districts of Kerala in the last few years. In a fast urbanising country like Kerala, places such as Wayanad is one of the few Indian districts which still retain its charm as a rural district. It is not swept by mindless urbanization like many other regions of India. Of course, this unique characteristic gives enourmous tourism potential to the place. Keeping in view the distinctive features of Wayanad, especially the natural attractions and the indigenous culture, a sustainable tourism model can be an effective alternative to offset the agrarian crisis of the district. The present scenario of host community participation in th various facets of tourism in Wayanad is intensively studied in this paper. It aims at proposing concrete ways in which the benefits from tourism can be channelized productively to uplift the affected sections of society facing agrarian crisis in Wayanad.

WEATHER VARIABILITY, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY, AND FARMER SUICIDES IN INDIA

Globalization, commercialization, modernization, erratic climatic conditions, individual expectations, contagion, and government policies are some of the reasons attributed to farmers’ suicides. This study hypothesizes that farmer suicides in India are primarily linked to loss in agricultural productivity which in turn is affected by adverse weather and low penetration of irrigation networks. Using panel data of 16 major states in India, from 1996 to 2015 and Control Function (CF) approach, the study shows that keeping all other factors fixed, a one degree rise in temperature results in 4.8% higher farmer suicides through a 3.6% decline in agricultural productivity. Further, the study highlights the significant role played by the contagion factors influencing farmer suicides. The study argues for policy responses that address covariate shocks arising from weather vagaries, price volatility, and liquidity constraint as well as idiosyncratic shocks arising from farmer-specific characteristics.

Trends and Causes of Farmers Suicide in Maharashtra State, India

The present study accepted out with an investigative strategy of social research on farmer’s suicide trend in Maharashtra state, Over 15,000 farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra between 2013 and 2018. In Vidarbha and Marathwada from January 2001 to July 2018, a total of 29602farmers from 18 districts of died by suicide. About 83.74% of the state's total farmer suicides were in the two regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada. The highest farmer suicide in Amravati division is 57.8%, than Nagpur division 15.6%, Aurangabad division 13.6%, Nasik division 8.3%, Pune division 4.5% and lowest farmer suicide 0.8% in Konkan division. A farming disaster has rainfall a spate of suicides in Maharashtra. The suicide mortality rate for farmers in the state has increased from 2001 to 2018. The rain dependent cotton growing farmers of Maharashtra are faced with declining profitability because of dumping in the global market by the US, low import tariffs, failure of the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme and withdrawal of the state are resulting in declining public investment in agriculture, poor government agriculture extension services and the diminishing role of formal credit institutions. The farmer is faced with yield, price, credit, income and weather uncertainties. The way out is to merge bold public policy initiatives with civil society engagement.

Monsoon, Market and Middlemen as Key Ingredients to Agrarian Distress in Contemporary India: Prioritizing for Policy and Practice Based Interventions

India has been an agrarian society since ages but fails to be an agriculture economy especially post globalization. Farmers who have rightly been termed as ‘Anna-data’ i.e. ‘giver of food’ have been facing an existential crisis unprecedented in India post-independence. One just needs to look at the rich literature on farmer suicides to understand the shades of distress that a farmer household has been going through off late. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has been publishing the statistics for suicide in India since the 1950s. The same body has also been collecting and publishing the statistics for farmer suicides since 1995. More than three lakh farmers have committed suicides in country as per government’s own records only in past two decades. There has been varied responses by both government as well as non-government sector to the issue. However, there has been no substantial change to the existing situation. This paper dwells into the reasons of failing interventions to the issue. Results The paper revisits major factorswhich have resulted in an unprecedented farm crisis in the countryover recent decades. Analyzing secondary data by individual and institutional researchers, it draws conclusions towards farm crisis being an inherently environmental issue surrounding climate change, unsustainable practices of water management and genetically modified seeds -needs attention foremost from an environmental view point, whereas not to discount economic factors like market and middlemen being given due attention for a rights based approach and not just with politically sellable loan-waivers or ritualistic jargons of Minimum Support Prices (MSPs). Counseling and other support services too deserve their due but largely as complementary to environmental and economic factors and never at their cost.

Real-Time Crop Monitoring in Agriculture

In many countries like India, farming is done using indigenous methods. Because of lack of proper knowledge in our farmers, the state of the agricultural sector becomes even more critical. Since the farming methodologies rely mostly on weather forecasts and predictions which might not be foolproof, most often the farmers incur huge losses leading to debts and mass farmer suicides. Adequate soil moisture, soil quality, air quality, and proper irrigation play a major role in the yield of crops, and hence, such factors cannot be overlooked. A major concern now is the exploding population due to which the agricultural supplies are not meeting the ever-increasing demand. The world's population is expected to cross nine billion marks by 2050 due to which the agricultural supply should increase at least by 70% to meet the requirement. To achieve this, it's necessary to monitor the plant growth at all stages starting from sowing until cultivation.