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...

The study has addressed the issues associated with the alternative milk market chains and their implications on dairy farmers and traders. It has been conducted in Bihar, where modern milk market chains especially the milk co-operatives have grown significantly. The study has shown that in spite...

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...

The smallholder dairy farmers’ access to modern milk marketing chain has been assessed in India by collecting data at the farm level in two states, viz. Bihar and Punjab. These states are among the largest milk producing states of the country but depict stark variations in terms of milk...

The paper has looked into the process of structural transformation of India’s dairy sector. During the past two decades, the sector grew at the rate of 4 per cent per year, making milk as the single largest agricultural commodity in the country. The growth in dairying has primarily been...

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...

This paper has studied rural employment diversification in India and across major states using NSSO data at household level for the period 1983 and 2009-10. Factors affecting rural employment diversification towards non-farm sector have also been studied. Analysis has shown that the non-farm...

The institutional credit has been conceived to play a pivotal role in the agricultural development of India. A large number of institutional agencies are involved in the disbursement of credit to agriculture. However, the persistence of money lenders in the rural credit market is still a major...

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,...