The Government of India had launched the National Biofuel Mission in the year 2003 as an initiative to limit the country’s dependence on crude oil imports. An integral part of this mission is the Biodiesel Blending program and Jatropha, a tree-borne biodiesel yielding crop, is the...

To insulate farmers against risks in agriculture, government has launched several schemes such as National Agricultural Insurance Scheme and weather index based crop insurance schemes. But their coverage seems to be limited among the farmers primarily due to lack of full information. This paper...

The food demand in India has been examined in the context of a structural shift in the dietary pattern of its population. The results have reinforced the hypothesis of a significant diversification in the dietary pattern of households in recent years and has found stark differences in the...

This study has estimated the total factor productivity (TFP) and its share in output growth, and returns to public investments on research in agriculture in India. The contribution of agricultural research in reducing real cost of production and attainment of food self-sufficiency has also been...

The study conduced on South Asian countries is focused on three issues, viz. (a) research priorities in agriculture, (b) level of research investment, and (c) focus of research investments to attain food-secured South Asia. The results of this empirical exercise have suggested that (a) cereals,...

The livelihood systems of farm households in coastal Orissa have been analysed based on a sample of 193 farmers. It is found that the incomes of these households were quite diversified. As against the general impression that crop income dominates household income, it is observed that the...

The paper has quantified the benefits of SRI over non-SRI practices of rice cultivation in Tamil Nadu. The SRI practices have been found to save inputs substantially and to increase returns. Higher return has been attributed to increase in production as well as substantial reduction in cost of...

Policy planners face the challenge of formulating suitable agricultural policy by which the required growth in domestic production can be achieved. To attain effective food security policy, one needs reliable empirical knowledge about the degree of responsiveness of factor demand and output...

Demand for foodgrains has been estimated for India for the years 2011-12, 2016-17 and 2021-22, by accounting for the factors like urbanization, regional variations in consumption pattern, shifts in dietary pattern and income distribution, limit on energy requirement and changes in tastes and...